How Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor saved Udta Punjab from collapse

Ten years ago on this day, June 17, 2016, it was a rare, refreshing sight to see three A-list stars — Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, and Alia Bhatt — lend their star power to Abhishek Chaubey’s crime drama Udta Punjab. Revolving around the drug menace in Punjab, the film endured a tough road to release and ultimately managed to make money, aided in part by its lead actors agreeing to halve their fees. That adjustment is unimaginable today, when star salaries continue to soar. In an exclusive interview with SCREEN, Chaubey revisits the film, his creative choices, and how its censorship battle is a part of its legacy.

Do you remember where the first seed of Udta Punjab came from?

Everything before the pandemic seems like ancient history now (laughs). But ya, I do remember meeting Sudip Sharma back in 2013. I’d already read the script of NH10, which I really liked. So, I really wanted to work with him. I had a vague idea about doing a drugs film. But it wasn’t set in Punjab then, but a pan-India setting.

So, when did Punjab come in?

I remember I was cutting Dedh Ishqiya (2014) when Sudip came to me and suggested we set the story in Punjab. I immediately jumped at it because Punjab is such a microcosm of the country. It had pop music, which I wanted to explore. And it had the drug menace because the drugs were coming in from Pakistan. So, it all made sense.

How much did the script change after you visited Punjab?

A lot. Initially, I was just a guy in my mid-30s who wanted to make a cool film about drugs and crime. Although I’d researched online about the drug situation in Punjab, when I visited areas affected by it there and met young kids battling addiction, it really opened our eyes. It shocked us. After a couple of meetings, we had to take a break because we couldn’t take it anymore. The idea of showing off a cool, muscular film about drugs went away very quickly. We realized what we’d taken on was way bigger than our careers. So, we had to be careful in how we approach it and make sure the film reaches the largest number of people possible.

Can you give an example of what changed in the storyline or any character arc after visiting Punjab?

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For example, the character of Diljit’s brother became very important. The way we wrote it and I directed him, he was the representation of what we saw there. How can you blame a 15-year-old for what’s happening to him? So, his graph and Kareena’s track really came in after we visited Punjab. We underestimate the selflessness of health professionals battling addiction issues. When we met some of them, we asked, “Why are you doing this? You’re seeing 500 patients a day. There’s no future!” All they had to say was, “Somebody has to do it.” That’s when Kareena’s character became very important. Otherwise it was primarily about Shahid and Alia’s characters.

Diljit Dosanjh and Kareena Kapoor in Udta Punjab.

I still can’t get out of my head that striking shot of Kareena Kapoor when she gets killed — there’s anger, shock, disappointment, but also pristine beauty on her face, like she’s lived a full life taking care of these kids in need. How did you design that shot with her?

From what I remember, at the point of impact, when the glass cuts the jugular vein, I told Kareena to not act for pain because she’s a doctor. She knows very well what’s happening to her, but that moment won’t last for long because the blood loss is so profound that you start seeing your life passing by in an instant. So, it’s not as much the pain, but the realisation of what has happened. That’s why she’s stunned. After that, she falls down and leans against a pillar as she sees her life flash by. And yes, you’re right Kareena really looked very beautiful in that whole scene. That amplifies the tragedy. She performed exceedingly well. Actors who can die well on screen, that’s talent (laughs).

Udta Punjab served as Alia Bhatt’s breakthrough. What had you watched of her before casting her in the film?

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When Alia’s came up in casting discussions, I’d only watched snatches of Student of the Year (2012), so I thought everyone had gone completely mad! But then I watched Highway (2014). Even there, she came from a different social class, but ya, there was sincerity. Her talent was easy to see. But my main worry was not about her getting the dialect and accent right, it was whether she could bridge the gap between herself and the character, given that she comes from a different socioeconomic class, and a different world entirely. That’s more of a journey because anybody can crack the dialect. Authenticity of the character was my worry.

Alia Bhatt as Mary Jane in Udta Punjab.

So, how did you and Alia get around that hurdle?

Firstly, I’d never seen someone commit themselves completely to the character, so much so that she left her self at home and completely became that character. All actors tap into something personal in order to play a character. I wonder what Alia tapped into, given her life and Mary Jane’s life. Secondly, I had the brainwave of getting Pankaj Tripathi as a trainer. He’s from Bihar, so he gets that world and the context of the character very well. We did readings everyday. After a point, actors question why we’re going on for hours, but it really helped. Pankaj helped me also to understand that community which is on the margins, is very poor, but is very athletic. That also informed her backstory further. He also made Alia lie down, close her eyes, put on some gentle music, and just talked about what her character’s life had been like so far. It helped her connect with the character in a way that couldn’t have been possible otherwise.

Shahid Kapoor’s Tommy Singh was also a tricky pitch to crack, right?

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Yes! Shahid was the first one to walk into the film, before we even had a producer. Shahid himself is very interested in that world. He played a big part in building that character. It was always written in the script that he’s going to chop off his hair. But to have long hair before that was his idea. It’s a painful wig to wear on your head, but that was his idea. I’d done a lot of research on substance abuse, so I could describe to him in a very prosaic way what’s happening to him. He had to be on edge all the time.

I was very worried the pitch could go wrong. Internalising and playing it subtle is easy because you’re not doing much. But when you’re doing so much, if even one note goes here and there, your performance goes for a toss. So, it was a daily discussion on set that if we’re going to overdo it, then how much are we going to overdo it, so that it doesn’t become fake. Shahid is a very accomplished actor, so he’d bring a lot of vulnerability without even me telling him to. I remember there’s a scene before the concert, where he doesn’t want to perform but is being made to, and his cousin brings out some drugs and puts them in his hand. He looks at the drug for a long time and then looks at his cousin in a way that says, “I should not be doing it. It’s going to destroy me.” He brought that out with just one expression.

Shahid Kapoor as Tommy Singh in Udta Punjab.

And then there was the additional challenge of Shahid not consuming alcohol or tobacco, yet playing a drug addict.

Ya, he doesn’t. I also told him when you’re battling drug addiction, nutrition isn’t really your priority. So, you don’t eat. But since he’s young, his body becomes a certain kind. You become very slim, pichka hua. So, he went on that kind of a diet and was really not eating anything on set. And he was plying his body with black coffee. That ups your heart rate and makes you edgy, especially when you’re having it on an empty stomach.

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Is it true that Shahid, Kareena, and Alia halved their fees for Udta Punjab?

I do believe they had reduced their fees significantly for their roles. That’s how the film got made. Alia was still new, but if Shahid and Kareena charged their market rate for this kind of a film, the budget would’ve gone so high that it wouldn’t have been feasible. I never thought this would be a mainstream film with mainstream stars. Phantom Films pushed me to do that. It was, at the end of the day, an edgy and dark film. It wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea. The film ended up making decent money. This is a lesson for the film industry now, because the kind of money stars and filmmakers are taking upfront isn’t justified. It’s detrimental to our industry. They can become partners in the profit. That’s the way to make cinema.

Shahid recently confessed that he’s struggling to bring commercial and offbeat cinema together. Do you think that’s a sustainable approach?

In the context of Udta Punjab, it was a different time. There was a period of 15 years, when we made a lot of these middle-of-the-road films, when stars also didn’t charge much. Those films made money because there was an appetite in the audience for them. But the pandemic and other factors have put a stop to that. The middle-of-the-road films doesn’t exist anymore. They’re in jeopardy. Right now, hot-button topics like patriotism really work for people. There are a lot of serious problems even on OTT today, but you can still make these films despite the commercialisation that’s happened. But it’s just not possible to do that in cinemas today. So, I completely second what he’s trying to say. Either go all commercial or go all alternative because the audience doesn’t have appetite for those middle-of-the-road films anymore.

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Udta Punjab’s censorship battle has also become a part of its legacy, and came into renewed focus after the recent death of then-CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani. Do you think things have gotten better or worse since then?

A society with as much censorship as ours has something sinister to hide (laughs). I hope we don’t. If we’re not ashamed of who we are, we should stop all this censorship business. I don’t think Mr. Nihalani, God bless his soul, is responsible for whatever happened to Udta Punjab. He’s just a part of the system. If anything, things are much, much, worse today. Making an Udta Punjab is not even possible. The level of censorship we have just goes on to show we have a tremendous amount of inferiority complex and shame. That’s the reality, and we need to come out of it.