Why Sumeet Vyas chose to play director rather than actor in his streaming show ‘Raat Jawaan Hai’

Sumeet Vyas is arguably one of India’s first streaming stars, appearing in TVF’s YouTube show Permanent Roommates way back in 2014. Vyas has since been in several series, in addition to appearing in films.

His latest streaming effort sees him behind the camera. Raat Jawaan Hai, which Vyas developed along with writer Khyati Anand-Puthran, is a comedy about three childhood friends navigating the challenges of being first-time parents.

Barun Sobti, Priya Bapat and Anjali Anand play characters who are confronted with a range of seriocomic situations, from finding a babysitter to picking the right preschool. Apart from modern parenting woes, the series also examines in a light-hearted vein young adults who feel that life is passing them by while they fulfil their duties.

The eight-episode Hindi series will be premiered on Sony LIV on October 11. Vyas – who has a candid, assertive and droll manner – spoke to Scroll about what attracted him to Raat Jawaan Hai, his eclectic cast and his views on the evolution of streaming.

Here are edited excerpts from the interview.

How did you get involved with Raat Jawaan Hai?

Khyati approached me with the script. Her son and my son play in the same park. I knew her as Kabir’s mumma.

One fine day, she said she was writing a script and would I be interested in directing it? The script was very relatable. There was a certain honesty in her narrative. No tricks of the trade were involved.

I was going through a similar phase of being an early parent. Living in Bombay in a nuclear family brings its own set of challenges. Khyati had a unique voice that resonated with me. The script had details that are hard to find in other scripts. Most writers are trying to work things out mathematically.

I joined Khyati in developing the script two episodes in, but she had already done the bulk of the writing. It’s one thing to sit in a room and ideate and another thing to write it all out.

The show has an easy-going tone. It appears flippant, but it’s also examining the problems faced by first-time parents.

We wanted the right balance between humour and depth. We didn’t want to overdo either aspect. Also, we didn’t want to make the show like anything else. The idea was to make something that was its own thing, create a narrative style that was unique and had its own pace.

The pace was very important for me. I didn’t want a rushed-up kind of narrative. I don’t like that style so much, we already have reels for that kind of thing.

I am a little old-school in this regard. I enjoy Malgudi Days and Hum Log and shows that have a certain pace, an Ang Lee-ish narrative where you feel that someone has sat you down and told you this story about three friends.

There are no macro conflicts. Nobody is bombing or killing anyone or trying to take over property. There are no bad people, only bad situations. These micro-moments, these fine moments require sensitivity and time. Which is why I was so hell-bent on this kind of narrative.

It’s unusual to have a man who is friends with women without being romantically involved with them.

This aspect was organically there in the script. I wanted to make sure that at no point should the gender thought come into the audience’s minds.

The show is more about friendship, with parenting as a catalyst, another storm these friends are weathering. Sometimes, the friends say very inappropriate things to each other. The tonality has to be just right, where it doesn’t feel offensive but honest. There is a safe space between these friends. The idea is to find a phase of friendship where you don’t feel judged.

As an actor, what are you looking for when you are casting actors?

I have directed actors all my life in theatre. I have learnt about directing from the best – from Nadira Babbar, from Sudhir Mishra. In the projects in which I was working as an actor, I would observe how directors talked to their actors, what was it that they did to get the best out of people.

It’s best to cast right than to cry later. The show has a certain odd brand of comedy, which is hard to get. I didn’t want to make it laugh out loud, but funny in an odd way.

The actors did a fantastic job. I didn’t want to suffocate them on the sets. I would take them through a scene, let them arrive at the point emotionally and then start the blocking. I have been on sets where the director has already decided where your hand will go and where you will look. That tends to get suffocating for actors. I was very conscious that I didn’t want to do that.

The idea was to give space not just to the actors but also the cinematographer, sound designer, and editor. The sets that I have been on and that have stayed with me are the ones where people look forward to the next day of work. Only when people feel free to experiment and think of the project as their own will they flourish. They shouldn’t feel scared to try something new.

Barun Sobti, Priya Bapat and Anjali Anand are inspired choices.

Barun is a very good actor. He is so present, so in the moment, so real. There is no false note. He’s also a treat to work with – no fuss, no stress. We had to even tell him to style his hair.

Anjali Anand is a very gifted actor. To be honest, I hadn’t seen any of her work. She was a revelation. Her instinct in every scene was so right.

Priya’s character Suman was one of my favourites. There was a micro-complex in Suman that I wanted to explore to the T. There is a breed of people who are scared of confrontation of the smallest kind. Suman is the kind of friend who is always following rather than leading. It was a very fine line, a very interesting aspect to explore with Priya.

How challenging was it to work with kids, including an infant?

We planned the shoot around their schedules. We had a tracker of their sleep schedules. When a kid would be asleep, the whole set would go silent and the actors would rehearse their lines. Then the kid would wake up on his own and you would get the shot.

We also had assistant directors who were very good with kids – that was the condition for hiring them. It was hard, but it was worth it.

The most relaxing to work with was three-year-old Jia Aman Yagnik, who plays Kadambari. I felt like I was working with Meryl Streep. She would repeat everything I said.

Streaming as we now know it wasn’t on the horizon when you did Permanent Roommates in 2014 and TVF Tripling in 2016. How do you view the scene now – and why aren’t you more involved with it?

There was no structure to Permanent Roommates. The first episode was eight minutes, the third was 30 minutes. It was vague but that was what so beautiful about it – you were telling the story with utmost honesty. There was no surety that it was going to become something. It’s rare to come across that sort of material. I felt that if I could try to retain and replicate that aspect in the work I did in the future, it would be good.

I had no idea that streaming would blow up like this. But the moment more money gets involved and corporate companies come into play, the equation changes, the reason to make a show changes.

Spending more money on a show does not guarantee you views or a place in people’s hearts. Corporate people are not here to tell stories. They are driven by numbers and subscriptions. Stats is the reason they do things. People like us do things because it makes sense to us, because we feel like doing it, which is why we don’t do very well in life.