Director’s Cut: Harsh Warrdhan says, 'My film InCar isn’t like NH10 at all'

After working in the West for more than a decade, Harsh Warrdhan decided to come back to India to explore filmmaking here. He recently made his directorial debut with InCar. The film stars National Award winning actress Ritika Singh. The Free Press Journal caught up with him for an exclusive chat.

Elaborating further on the metaphorical title of InCar, Harsh says, “When I wrote the script, it was called Loot. Meanwhile, the discussions were on that it was sounding a little harsh. We bounced around hundreds of names but later I thought since 95 per cent of the film was shot inside the car, why not keep InCar, which also means rejection in Hindi. I wanted to make audiences feel that claustrophobia. When I talked about the final title, people were very warmed up to it.”

He adds, “When I migrated back to India, a horrifying event happened and I don’t want to mention the name since it might look like a promotional tool. Also, if you see the larger picture, the film isn’t that either. Besides rape, there were other things too. I wanted to understand the psyche of those men. In our country, both men and women are brought up in the same culture, but somehow the former gender comes with the burden of patriarchy, masculinity, etc. Men from the interiors have a lot of money, they have expensive cars but they lack education and exposure. My film isn’t like NH10 (2015) at all.”

Harsh feels Ritika was the right choice for his film. “Initially, a lot of names popped up but I wasn’t happy with the choices we had. InCar is a film which any filmmaker would make only once in their lifetime since it wasn’t an easy film to shoot. I didn’t want audiences to think that she would be saved since she is an actress. Ritika was shooting in Bengaluru when I sent the script to her and she excitedly called me the next day and told me that she is doing it. She was also coming in our budget,” he reveals.

As a filmmaker, who worked in the West for nearly 14 years, Harsh now wants to explore subjects keeping Indian sensibilities in mind. “There was a learning curve there and people aren’t sentimental and dramatic. It’s an entirely different culture there so I had to unlearn many things out here. Before InCar, I wanted to make a film titled Suicide Satsang but no one really backed it, however, they all loved the concept. I could make it there only but not in our country,” he explains.

InCar released in cinemas on March 3 and is backed by Sajid Qureshi.