00:00Well, actually, the idea was not mine. It was a Netflix idea. I never thought of it.
00:09And I got a call from Netflix to ask me whether I would be interested in directing this film.
00:16And I was a bit taken aback by the offer because it's a documentary. And I've never directed
00:21a documentary till now. And, but I was very, very, very kind of curious about Honey's life
00:30and everything that's happened to him, the highs and the lows. And, and as a filmmaker,
00:37I always wanted to make one film in my career about a rock star. And here was the offer.
00:44So it was a completely Netflix idea. They got in touch with me. They got in touch with
00:49Sikhya. They put everything together. And that's how it happened.
00:56So, you know, like you said, you know, you, you asked this question, Moses, me, and then
01:01this, this was absolutely the other way around. It is Netflix, Sikhya, Moses. And as I think
01:09Honey's life is fascinating. It's meant to be a documentary. In a short span of time,
01:16he's seen the highest of highs, lowest of lows, it is so colorful. And it is controversy.
01:21And you know, anything he touched became gold at one point of time and then gayab. So, you
01:27want to know what happened and what, where is he. And he's so determined, he, you know,
01:34gained all the weight, then lost the weight. Now coming back, we've been on this journey
01:37for three years. And Moses particularly has a really high, I feel, empathy quotient, you
01:44know, besides being a director who's very good with music, from Zuban to anything like
01:50we've, we've worked together for a decade and a half now. I think Moses is just one
01:57particular director who's one of the most hardworking directors at, that I have ever
02:02worked with. And I just think that, you know, he can, he has the capacity to have a conversation
02:09with anybody and get the best out of them. You know, be it in a gurudwara or in a nightclub.
02:15Like the most spiritual conversation and the most, you know, idiotic, you know, like simplistic,
02:22simplistic in one minute, but like literally something that you will remember, you know.
02:27So I was actually very, very excited for Moses to be on this journey, because I know that
02:32Moses and Honey together, Moses will be able to take out the best version of this story,
02:38you know. And that is something that we're very proud of. It's a pure, raw, all bare
02:45version of a celebrity. And there is definitely nothing like this ever done in India before.
02:56You know, I think Netflix world over has been very integral in the way we've shaped nonfiction
03:04content and its viewing. And I think we've tried to carry the same thing forward in India as well.
03:09So whether it is, you know, really starting out with building the crime portfolio, to then,
03:14on the other hand, really, you know, sort of a Kapil Sharma kind of a show, The Great Indian
03:19Kapil Show, or Bollywood vibes. I think there's just such different dimensions of the genre,
03:24that we've been able to build a steady flow of unscripted content in India and, you know,
03:31a viewer base for it. So the idea with, you know, this documentary, personality-based
03:36documentaries, which has recently launched the Nayanthara Beyond the Fairy Tale documentary as
03:41well, is that it is a fan favorite piece. You know, it is a personality, who the fans love,
03:49and Honey specifically, you know, there are idols who you put on a pedestal and you worship.
03:53And then there are idols who you would sort of put your hand on their shoulder and walk with.
03:58He's a man of the people. He is, you know, every friend's friend and every girl's boyfriend and
04:04brother and various things. So the dimensions in him are so personal to his fan base, that we're
04:12very excited to really open the doors to that mad fandom. And, you know, sometimes what happens is
04:18that these stories and these, this format, specifically slightly verite, but not quite a
04:24little bit follow as well, allows you to literally sort of share the same space with your idol,
04:31you know, and really walk their journey. Because sometimes when you see yourself reflected on
04:36screen like that, it can mean so many things for the audience. Honey's journey has been,
04:41like Guneet rightly said, it's been like up and down and up and down. And it takes a lot of grit,
04:48it takes a lot of courage. And I, you know, really kudos to Moses with the intimacy with which he's
04:54brought that out. I think when fans look at it, and when they sort of experience his journey,
05:00we've personally, we're very curious to sort of see what's the reaction, what's the empathy to
05:04him, because it's very nice to sort of read headlines and have an opinion. But this is
05:08like walking the journey with him, which is what is very exciting and different from anything we've
05:13done. And they've done an excellent job. This is our fourth partnership.
05:18Absolutely. In fact, you know, especially for documentaries, there's no other better platform
05:23worldwide. I think our journey on Elephant Whispers was a beginning of that. And it opened
05:29global doors. And now with Honey Singh, a personality like that, with music that transcends
05:35generations, you know, we just saw him in the AP Dhillon concert. And Moses is there and he says,
05:43the arena shook, like with hysteria, with people like going crazy. And that is the next generation,
05:48like that's 20 years old now. Literally, a party doesn't start without Honey Singh. And this is a
05:53deep dive on his life. And literally no other better platform to take the story from India
05:58to the world.
06:04You know, the first thing is that when you walk into a room with something like that as a film
06:10maker, and you want to extract information from someone because you're making a film on their
06:13life, you have to do a couple of things. Firstly, you have to drop your own ego.
06:18Right? Because you have to be prepared for the person to say, I'm not going to tell you.
06:22Right? You have to drop your ego and you cannot have an ego hassle about it.
06:26Right? That's the first thing. Because you have to understand that he is the star.
06:30Yeah.
06:30Right? You as the director are not the star, you're serving this film. And whatever he says
06:37is going to happen. Right? So you drop your own sense of ego and you, whatever all of that you
06:43come from, because every director has some kind of filmmaker ego. Right? And then the next thing
06:50you have to do after that is you have to build trust. It's really, really important to build
06:56trust. It's really, really important to be able to let the person know that you are here to do a job.
07:03And you are going to do to the best of your abilities, because that is what you've been
07:07hired for. Right? But at no time are you going to throw him under the bus. So it's a very
07:15fine line that you have to follow and you have to follow it the whole time. You cannot follow it
07:20on certain days. You have to follow it the whole time. You have to even follow it when he's not in
07:24the room, when you're sitting with your editor, when you're sitting with your producers and you're
07:28making decisions about how do you construct the scene, like how are you going to do it and all
07:32that stuff. And if you feel that there is not enough of the other side to show, then you're
07:39going to shoot that to make sure that it is balanced. Because the point of this film is not,
07:46the point of this film is to show a rock star in all his spectrum. Right? The good, the bad,
07:53the ugly, the colorful, whatever it is. It is not to destroy him. It is not to make him feel small.
08:01It is not to also make him feel unnecessarily, inauthentically larger than he is. It's none of
08:09those things. It is to tell the truth. So it's a very fine line and it's a long journey. I mean,
08:16I've been on this film for almost three years now and it's been, all of this has taught me a lot
08:23about myself that I actually have it in me to tread the line for so long and to not throw the guy
08:31under the bus or to do anything to hurt because the point is not to hurt people but the point is
08:35to tell your truth. So it's kind of merges and matches at some point.
08:46I don't think there were any checks and balances. It was a deep dive on Honey's life
08:53and in a documentary, you know, which is a follow documentary, there can't be any. Like,
08:59you know, there's nothing scripted. There is nothing we'd like to take this journey as it
09:07goes. So we've done our research and then we go and ask some questions. Then we meet the family,
09:12we meet the friends, we expand our circle of questions. Then we go back on the edit table,
09:17we go back and you know, figure out the counter questions and then you start constructing it and
09:24as you construct then you go back on shoot. You know, like now Honey's on a tour, he's in Dubai,
09:29he's celebrating his birthday, he's in LA on a tour and then you follow him there and in those
09:34moments somewhere magic happens. You know, you relive the childhood, you relive a lot of major
09:40life stories. So there were no checks and balances and it was always finding the best version of the
09:46story and I think that is something that was a core thread that binded all of us, you know,
09:51and that is something, it's hugely empowering actually. You know, it doesn't come with any
09:55rules, you know, not from Netflix, not from us, not for the director, nothing. You know,
10:01it's more like if you're with a personality and you are shooting, you're asking your questions,
10:07we would do framework like okay, what life we would go into, at what time we ask what,
10:14you know, like all that of course. You spend five hours then to get one hour of something that you
10:19will retain, you know. It's very time consuming, it's taken us three years. I mean, consumers will
10:24see this in one and a half hour but it's three years of hard work and also, you know, he had
10:31gained weight, he's, you know, he's dealing with mental health, you know, he's talking about that,
10:37very, very high level of empathy is needed to be like, how much time it takes, make it well.
10:43You know, so it doesn't come with checks and balances. I mean, this was in all its, you know,
10:48and then we had this huge undertaking of the licenses of all the songs, his journey is expanded
10:55over every studio possible, every music studio, every nationally, internationally, you know. So,
11:01it's a process that goes on, you know, you have to then take out something, take in something but
11:06it didn't really come with any checks and balances. It was and we enjoy that storytelling and it's
11:12actually telling the truth. It always was make the best version.
11:17You know, I think a documentary is a very long and very immersive journey and I think the only
11:25thing like Moses was saying from a director's point of view, I think from a similar creator's
11:32lens also, the only thing is the honesty to the story you're trying to tell and really stringing
11:38that through because unlike fiction, where you write and then go in and shoot, here the writing
11:43happens on the edit table. So, how much of a guardrail or a, you know, sort of mandate can
11:49you put on it also, it's impossible. Also, in a format like this, we are just at many levels,
11:56this overlaps closely with an op doc, which is very observational of Honey in various situations,
12:02how he's behaving, it's so unfiltered, it's so organic and authentic that only he can have
12:09the guardrail and he was, he is the subject of the documentary, he is the person who's actually,
12:17whose journey we are experiencing and that's probably the only guardrail that was,
12:22that the fans should see him in every aspect of his life, his highs, his lows, his weak moments
12:30or Honey as we perceive him, you know, the brazen Honey who's unfiltered, so there's all shades of
12:36him and that's also because we are very audience backwards as a platform, we do believe that,
12:42you know, it is, we are making our stories, are being told for our audience and this is what they
12:47want to see, they want to see the various aspects, they've seen him on concert, they've seen him in
12:51interviews, they've seen him in controversies but have they seen him with his family, how close he
12:56is to his sister or his mom, how his family feels about him, how the fans, how he gets stopped on
13:02the road even today really, you know, and the man on the street is talking to him like he's his buddy
13:10and saying that, you know, it's amazing the charm, so it is an, I think, a very honest portrayal of
13:19Honey and every kind of reaction that he spews but Moses should talk most to this.
13:26you
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