Shyam Madiraju: Harami is my love letter to Mumbai

The Busan International Film Festival is underway, and is one of the year’s first international film festivals to be held on-ground and online. Had everything gone as planned, Emraan Hashmi and filmmaker Shyam Madiraju would have travelled to be present for their film Harami’s screening at the festival. The director, though disappointed that the team and he would have to settle for a virtual presence at the festival, he’s happy that he had a chance to work with someone like Emraan Hashmi.
“Emmi and Madhur Dixit Nene are two actors who use the camera like a magic door to travel to a different space the moment it’s rolling. One moment they are laughing and joking and the next moment, they’re the characters they are playing. Emraan plays the bad guy in my film but he and I were clear that we would not want to go the cheesy route to depict the character. Guys like them don’t come in packages with an underline,” says Shyam.
The filmmaker came to Mumbai when he was 19 and stayed in a tiny quarter which he would slide in and out of. That led him to gallivant all over Mumbai, in the course of which he studied the city over a period of time. “I would go around and see people, and how the railway lines actually divide the city so well. After the initial years, I started travelling all over the world. Each time that I came to Mumbai, I would shoot the city on my camera. It’s been a city of extremes for me: one that gives you and takes away from you in the snap of a finger. It’s dangerously demanding. Harami is my love letter to Mumbai, the city I am in love with, and the city I sometimes detest. It was during my many visits to the city that I had stumbled upon a kid who stole from right outside the railway stations. He led me to a gang of these kids that sniff glue and steal. The initial idea for Harami came from there.”
When asked why he had made the film in an indie style when he could have made a sizable commercial Hindi film, Shyam says, “I actually think that this is one of those movies whose potential is visible now. The script didn’t give studios a clear idea of where they could box it. I would have loved to make the film on a bigger scale but the studios would turn it away saying, ‘Yeh to different hai.’ It’s a film that matters to the audience, and as long as it makes sense to them, they don’t care about the space it belongs to. We had to toil to get a financier on board but we made it work.”