werent allowed back on that location many weeks later we ended up having to rebuild that same huge decrepit flat as a set copying it identically inch by inch so it was very surreal when we were shooting the same exact party in that identical flat later only this time it was a set on a studio floor and not in that location it was replicated perfectly by our production designer madhur madhavan down to the crumbling walls broken pipes everything in the show i now cant tell what was shot in the original flat and which parts were on that setin one of your earlier interviews you had mentioned how you had no plans of becoming a part of bollywood what changed your mind and how has it been so fari havent changed my mind i still work like an independent filmmaker with a free vision of how i want to make things if there is too much control on a project or specific conditions like i have to have certain music or work with soandso actors etc then i just wont do it so i feel like i have changed less but it is just that the old bollywood industry itself has mostly collapsed allowing directors such as myself to now have a space that i did not have when miss lovely came out in 2012 certain actors might ask to work with me now just because they like the style of filmmaking or want to do something different its a new generation of actors more exposed to global cinema its not like earlier where you would have to narrate your film to 20 stars before anyone gave you money i also think the audience is a lot more exposed now they are open to the kind of work i might want to do i think class is a good example of thatbollywood has undoubtedly been an actorled industry and maybe it still is however do you think there is a change coming right in the corner with good content taking centrestage especially after the pandemicyeah i think bollywood is unrecognisable from one decade ago a massive change has been happening since 2012 since we had a wave of independent directors making things the rise of ott platforms the digital distribution of films from the south and the pandemic further allowed new currents in and that now make it impossible to define what our industry is anymore anything can happen which is greatshaunak sens all that breathes and kartiki gonsalvess the elephant whisperers have been nominated for the best documentary and best documentary short awards respectively at the oscars 2023 your thoughtsi havent seen the elephant whisperers but shaunak is a friend and i like his films a lot i was a big fan of his previous film cities of sleep as well its amazing i wish both of them the best for me i dont think so much about the oscars because i dont find them