'There Are Some Conversations With Hollywood, Some Exciting Projects'

'Hopefully, in 10 years, I will cross over.'
'I'll be doing Hindi stuff, but hopefully, global projects too.'

Citadel: Honey Bunny Writer Sita R Menon takes us behind the scenes of the spy thriller series in an extensive, multi-part interview.

She shares how Varun Dhawan hung upside down for an hour as part of the series' action routine and how his character is 'fully Bambaiya'.

But there's more.

"The three of us (Directors Raj, DK, Sita) for a really long time, were outsiders. We used to feel very different. But at the end of the day, your work speaks for you," Sita tells Patcy N/Rediff.com.

As an outsider, was it a struggle to make your space in the film industry?

The outsider feeling is always there.

The three of us (Directors Raj, DK, Sita) for a really long time, were outsiders.

We used to feel very different.

But at the end of the day, your work speaks for you.

It's always a struggle to approach actors or celebrities.

But at the end of the day, we are professionals. Once we get that awkwardness out of the way, we're all there to do our job.

Did you ever have sense of awe when you interviewed somebody? Was the illusion ever broken?

A long time ago (in 2001), Sheelaji (Bhatt), Jyotiji (Shukla) and I had gone to interview Amitabh Bachchan.

I was new at that time and they were veterans.

He turned out to be this person who knew technology and the Internet even in those days.

It was not that the illusion was broken, it's just that you grow up with a certain perception of Amitabh Bachchan, as this huge, towering personality. So that meeting was impactful for me.

How do you cope with a flop like A Gentleman?

Thanks to God, the shows are working, but the movies never worked. We only got critical acclaim.

I have this escapist mentality.

I don't look at reviews or how the film is doing.

99 didn't do well, Shor In the City did not technically do well.

Go Goa Gone was not a super duper hit.

Happy Ending flopped and A Gentleman was rock bottom.

I'm in a really bad mental space a week after the release.

After that, you can give all the critics.

Fortunately, when Farzi came out, we were in the middle of shooting Citadel, in the wild in Nainital. So there was no great Internet. That made it easy and I sailed through that release phase.

Then somebody said, oh, it's the most watched series in India.

When we came back, I looked up the reviews and what people were saying.

When is Farzi 2 coming out?

It's coming. We are planning and talking about the next season.

But we haven't started actually putting thoughts to paper.

We're actually in the middle of shooting our next show called Rakht Brahmand for Netflix.

That's a very complex project and extremely stressful.

Once that is done, maybe by January, I'll start writing Farzi 2.

Why did you shift to OTT? Was it COVID or the fact that the films were not working?

Citadel came to us before COVID.

Raj and DK had started The Family Man in 2017 or 2018; they've done two seasons very quickly.

Then COVID came.

I like the long format now.

I like the way you are able to stay with the characters and their journey over six or eight episodes.

The writing process becomes more fulfilling.

Why didn't you collaborate on The Family Man?

I was in the middle of a crisis, taking care of my parents.

The writing process starts earlier; I think they spent three years writing it.

Have you ever thought about getting into direction?

I don't want to.

I don't have it in me.

Direction is 99 percent people management, and I'm not a great people manager.

I don't have patience.

Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years?

Now that this process has started, it has made me hungry for a lot more -- creating more content, not just writing, creating different kinds of content.

There are some conversations with Hollywood, some exciting projects.

Hopefully, in 10 years, I will cross over.

I'll be doing Hindi stuff, but hopefully, global projects too.

How much has scripting changed over the years? When you started, scripts weren't bound, but now, do people deviate from scripts? If they do, do they take your opinion?
How much has a writer's importance changed over the years?

I don't know how it was earlier. Writers may not have been given their due earlier.

But the good thing about platforms like OTT, and working with Raj and DK is that because they themselves are writers. They know how important it is.

Without a writer, there is no story, no project.