Neeraj Pandey’s Sikandar Ka Muqaddar sees the director reuniting with Jimmy Sheirgill after A Wednesday! (2008), Special 26 (2013) and Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha (2024). In Pandey’s upcoming movie, Sheirgill plays a “tenacious cop who believes that he is never wrong about his instincts”, the writer-director told Scroll.
Sheirgill’s character Jaswinder is convinced about the three perpetrators behind a diamond heist that has taken place in Mumbai. For over a decade, Jaswinder stays hot on the trail of Sikandar (Avinash Tiwary), Kamini (Tamannaah Bhatia) and Mangesh (Rajeev Mehta), even though it appears that they might be innocent.
In particular, Jaswinder gets fixated on Sikandar – hence the title, which loosely means Sikandar’s Destiny. “That one basic thought – his instinct – leads him to a case where his entire life changes,” Pandey said about Jaswinder. “The lives of the persons whom he suspects change, and the people around them change too. Jaswinder is completely obsessed with this particular case and this suspect, and he believes his instinct can’t be wrong. He gives the case his all and ends up destroying himself.”
Sikandar Ka Muqaddar will be premiered on Netflix on November 29. Sheirgill was a shoo-in for the lead role, given Pandey’s comfort with the actor. They had met before Pandey made his feature debut A Wednesday!
“Jimmy is a fantastic talent and very underutilised,” Pandey said. “I am always looking forward to an opportunity where you can tap into something that is exciting and not seen before.”
Sheirgill has the “ability to listen”, Pandey added. “He gets me very quickly and is ready to unconditionally submit himself to the material.”
Pandey’s preferred method of working with actors is to discuss the script threadbare with them. “Readings help you answer as many questions as possible – you want to be clear and leave nothing for the set. On the set, you want to be prepped and primed.”
Since 2020, Pandey has been balancing his own films and his productions with web series. These include Special Ops, Khakee: The Bihar Chapter and The Freelancer. A second season of Khakee is in the works for Netflix. Another project that Pandey is keen to revive is a historical film based on the ancient Indian philosopher Chanakya.
The film “fell through at the last moment” after being in the works for a year. Meanwhile, the 50-year-old filmmaker began working on Sikandar Ka Muqaddar in 2023.
“I don’t sit down to write unless I am clear about the start, middle and end,” Pandey said. “It’s exciting to put a few things into motion but many times, you pull the plug on something that you have developed even after the script is done. That’s more courageous than going ahead and doing it because it may not turn out the way you wanted.”
Given Pandey’s pace of work – he has written, directed and produced films, shows and docuseries – it isn’t an exaggeration to say that some project or the other is always simmering away in his brain. But the execution of an idea depends on external factors, such as attracting financiers when a film or show doesn’t have a conventional, star-heavy line-up.
The rules of the Bollywood game, which Pandey disrupted with the success of A Wednesday! in 2008, haven’t changed that much over the years, he observed.
“Money talks every time – sometimes, it talks through silence,” Pandey said. “When we wanted to mount A Wednesday!, it was the exact same scenario of people wanting to cast stars. Nothing has changed, because people don’t change. There’s a lot of affinity towards a cushion, to go with conventional types. It requires a completely different mentality to disrupt the game.”
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