Bollywood Hungama

Pritam And Pedro: Screenwriter Suyash Trivedi on the shows success, working with Rajkumar Hirani and craft of storytelling: We approached it as a human story rather than a show about technology

Rajkumar Hiranis maiden web series Pritam And Pedro has emerged as one of the most loved shows of this year. The comedy-thriller starring Vir Hirani, Arshad Warsi, and Vikrant Massey received widespread reception from audiences and critics alike for turning a cold, clinical cyber-thriller into a heartwarming buddy-cop comedy where old-school physical policing beautifully collides with modern computer code. The series has found resonance across age groups, thanks in large part to its writing. The screenplay brilliantly blends humour, emotion and cybercrime narrative without getting weighed down by technical jargon. For Suyash Trivedi, who wrote the screenplay of Pritam And Pedro, the shows success has brought wider recognition, but its the experience of working with Hirani and the lessons he has learned through the process that he will cherish forever. This Avinash Arun-directed Jio Hotstar show marks a new high for the writer, who began his career with wildlife filmmaking and then directing and producing reality television content before embarking on screenwriting with Diljit Dosanjh and Taapsee Pannus 2018 biographical drama, Soorma. In this exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, Suyash Trivedi opens up about the series journey, from its origins in cybercrime expert Amit Dubeys stories to the multiple drafts and rewrites that eventually shaped the show. He also discusses the experience of collaborating with Rajkumar Hirani, the filmmakers approach to storytelling, and his remarkable ability to recognize when a scene is not working and letting it go. Read on: Pritam And Pedro has become one of JioHotstars biggest successes. How do you see this success, and what has been the most unexpected audience reaction you've received since release? The immediate reaction was honestly relief. A lot of time and effort has been put into this show. And at some point, you begin to lose objectivity about the show. The jokes become stale. The drama becomes predictable. So honestly, when the first reactions came in, it was just a sense of relief. A couple of weeks after the show released is when it felt really great. More than the most unexpected reactions, the array of reactions has been actually surprising. My first OTT show, Out of Love, did really well. But in the lot of ways it was a contained show. With Pritam and Pedro, it has reached a much much larger audience. Ive gotten calls from across age groups old school friends Ive lost touch with for years, my parents' friends, peers Ive worked with over the years, my domestic staff. Ive had my work appreciated before. The broad-based resonance for the show was what was new and surprising. Looking back, what was the original germ of the idea behind Pritam And Pedro and how did you get involved with the show? Take us through its writing journey from the first idea to the final screenplay When I met Raju sir for the first time for this show, he was very intrigued by the stories written by cyber-crime expert Amit Dubey. I was sent his stories, some of which were unpublished at that time. The thing that was most fascinating about the stories was that unlike cybercrime stories that rely on heavy tech and jargon that a layman would never understand, these stories solved crimes and explained them so simplistically that even my dad understands them. In these stories, Amit was using things like True Caller, Facebook, Google... Technologies that were accessible to all of us and solving crimes through them. Which was very refreshing. I went back to Raju sir with the idea of a guy who is a tech genius, a cop who doesnt understand technology and how these two unlikely characters come together to solve a crime and in the process become buddies. It was literally just a skeleton at that point. And from there, multiple discussions, drafts, writes and re-writes is what eventually became Pritam And Pedro. Pritam And Pedro is a typical Rajkumar Hirani content a story that is simultaneously funny, emotionally engaging and socially relevant. Was it a conscious attempt to make the show feel recognisably Hirani while still establishing its own identity? Actually, not at all. The idea was to be true to the story and true to the genre. It was always imperative that we create two fun characters. The buddy idea of these two characters was always at the centre of the story. We always approached the story as a human story rather than a show about technology. Also lets be honest, youre working with Rajkumar Hirani. The man is an institution in himself. So, you naturally, as a writer, tend to gravitate towards his style. And that is something that as a professional writer you should be able to do. Hypothetically, tomorrow if I write for, say, Sriram Raghvan, as much as I will bring my writing style, sensibilities and politics into my writing, I will still be writing for Sriram Raghvan. And his style, likings and influence will be an integral part of the script I write. As a professional writer, it is something I should be able to do. What is Rajkumar Hirani like as a writing collaborator? Does he come into the room with a very clear vision, or does he allow the writers to discover the story with him? He is honestly an institution in himself. Hes very open to whatever story you want to say, which is great. Its not like it has to be his story. What he is very clear about is how the story should be said. He is very sharp in terms of knowing where the audience could lose interest in the story. Also, he is a fantastic narrator. Id consider myself lucky to be in a room when he is narrating a scene I have written. Even though I know all the beats of the scene, hearing him narrate it takes it to the next level. Also, he has this great ability to not get attached to a scene or a story. We could have worked on something for months, and if he thinks it is not working, he will not hesitate to drop it. Ive seen writers and directors get attached to literally one piece of dialogue, one shot, one take and not drop it even when it is not working. So, its refreshing to see someone of his stature drop a scene if it does not work in the larger scheme of things. Pritam And Pedro features many scenes that remind us of the previous Hirani films. Was that intentional? Absolutely not. Like I mentioned, some of it comes in intrinsically during the writing process. Also, writing while artistic is also a very technical job. Knowing what scene to cut where, what plot points to bring in at what point, how to connect scenes... Theres a science behind it all. So, while you are trying to piece it all together, you hardly are being intentional about serving past films. Youre actually working in service of the film or series you are writing. And praying really hard that all the ducks align. Eventually writers, like any artists, dont work in a vacuum. Influences will always be there. If I write a dark crime drama tomorrow, whatever I do, I know there will be a Coen Brothers influence on it. Similarly, if I write a love story, Linklater will be an influence. These are subconscious and not intentional. Cybercrime can become very technical very quickly. How did the team humanize the digital threats (phishing, hacking, online dangers to children, etc.) while keeping the story accessible and entertaining for a family audience? Honestly, a lot of that credit goes to the source material. Amit Dubeys stories solved digital crimes using everyday technology. And that was very appealing. There are shows there where the characters use tech jargon, the screen shows an array of code, and the protagonist hacks into something. Nothing wrong with that. Reminds me of what Christopher Walken said when he was talking about Severence. Hed said that the audience doesn't have to know what I'm talking about, just so long as they know that I know what I'm talking about. But in that style of storytelling, youre not with the protagonist solving the crime. You know that the protagonist will solve the crime, thanks to his genius. Amit Dubeys stories made an average person who is not a coder feel like not only can they fully understand how the crime was solved, but also be part of it. Which was very refreshing. So, while we did work a lot on the human stories, the dynamics, and the larger arcs, a lot of the freshness when it came to digital crimes and how they are solved are thanks to Amit Dubey. Your first major film credit was the screenplay for Soorma (2018). After that, you worked on the Hotstar series Out of Love. Could you please tell us about yourself? How did you first get into screenwriting, and how has the journey been so far? I stared off with an immense interest in wildlife films. I spent 6 months in the Gir forest working on a wildlife film on the Asiatic lions and the human-lion conflict, thanks to the success of the Asiatic lion conversation program. I was assisting this fantastic wildlife filmmaker Praveen Singh on this. It was a 2-member crew - him and me. So, I ended up assisting on sound, camera, writing... Practically everything. I would wake up every morning at 4 AM and put sand bags on the tripods stands and spend late evening trying to piece the story together. What wildlife film making teaches you is to not be attached to an idea. I might want to open the film with an Asiatic lion walking across the Diu beach. Will I get that shot? Ill never know. And every day the writing changes, thanks to something thats not in your control. I then spent the next few years directing and producing reality content for television. I did shows for MTV, Comedy Central, directed a show for History TV 18. While doing all of this, I kept reading scripts, watching the film I read, and then rereading the script while writing really bad scripts myself. Eventually I ended up writing a dark comedy I was really proud of. Nobody wanted to make it. It was rather off-center and dark. But thanks to that script, I ended up meeting a lot of production houses. And the common response was, We cant make this, but if you have something else, wed be happy to read. Thats where it began. Then Soorma happened. Id also written another script, which Farhan Akhtar loved, and Excel ended up acquiring it. And things began to roll from there. How much freedom does a six-episode format give a writer that a two-and-a-half-hour theatrical film doesn't? What the longer format gives you as a writer is that you do not need to race to the end. While writing a feature film, one eye is always on the page count. You know it has to be certain pages. You know it has to have an interval. So, a lot of it is retrofitted. With series, there are actually no rules. You could invest in multiple characters. In certain series, you could completely break the narrative even. Like in The Last of Us, it is the third or fourth episode if I am not mistaken. Its called the Long, Long Time. It literally takes you away from the main story, takes you into a different world with the two characters, and has the audacity to not even find a rejoinder to the main story in the entire episode. That is the power of series. One episode could be 30 minutes. And one could be 50 minutes. It allows you to literally be in service of the story. Having said that, theres a magic to movies. We all fell in love with storytelling, thanks to the movies, isnt it? What was the biggest writing challenge on Pritam And Pedro that audiences will probably never notice? Its not to do with Pritam And Pedro. Writing is tough. Sitting on a blank page at 5 in the morning, you never really know where the day is going to go. Its lonely. And each project is challenging. And its challenging for every department. Shooting, editing, makeup... Everybody has challenges. The beauty of it all is when someone clicks play or buys a ticket, they really want to be transported into that world. They really want to enjoy the story. And the fun, the magic of it all is that you do not want the audience to know the challenges. You do not want them to know that there was a f***-up and how it was managed in the edit. Thats the mystery of it. Is Pritam And Pedro getting a second season? And what's next for you? About the second season, Id let any official announcements come from the platform and the producers. Im working on a few things. Theres a series I am developing. Its in early stages. And also, I am very excited about a film Im planning to direct. Its a film weve not seen here. Its very new. Its very exciting. And I hope I can put that together soon. After Pritam And Pedro, what have you learned about writing a story, and is there anything you would approach differently on your next project? I really loved the honesty with which Raju sir and Abhijat approach a story, a scene, or even a dialogue. They have this ability to be fearless, try something new, and not follow the traditional rules when it comes to storytelling. While I have learnt a lot of, well, ules for storytelling, what Ive actually learnt is to circumvent these rules and still stay within the narrative structure, if that makes sense. Eventually, you have one chance at saying a story in the best way possible. Give it your all. Also Read: Pritam and Pedro in talks for Korean remake following strong response