“It is exciting to index your work against the best out there and see how you fare”: Neeraj Pandey

The director of ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Special 26’, and ‘Baby’ talks about the different challenges involved in creating a film and a series.

In January, National Award-winning director Kabir Khan’s ‘The Forgotten Army’ was released by Amazon Prime Video on its streaming platform. Prime Video India said it was their ‘magnum opus’. Later in March, Hotstar, which is now a part of The Walt Disney Company, will stream espionage thriller ‘Special Ops’. For them, it is their ‘magnum opus’. There are more high-decibel, star-studded releases lined up by the likes of ZEE5, VOOT, Netflix, ALTBalaji and other video on demand platforms.

If Khan was Amazon’s bet then Neeraj Pandey is Hotstar’s. It is becoming increasingly evident that the streaming platforms will only invest big in something if it has a “tried and tested” showrunner - a term that has started gaining popularity in India only recently. Pandey made his directorial debut with the Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher-starrer suspense thriller ‘A Wednesday’. He then went on to make ‘Special 26’, ‘Baby’, and many other successful titles.

‘Special Ops’ is an espionage thriller that Pandey has linked with the 2001 Parliament attack. The eight-episode series stars KK Menon and Divya Dutta.

In an interview with afaqs!, Pandey talks about the different challenges involved in creating a film and a series.Edited excerpts:

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