Neeraj Pandey: A story could be agnostic of storyteller’s political belief

Mumbai, March 7 From the start of his career as a director in 2008 with “A Wednesday!”, National Award-winning filmmaker Neeraj Pandey has always delivered stories that carry the message of nationalism and patriotism. His upcoming web series “Special Ops” adds up to his signature. Neeraj says as a storyteller, he tells a story according to its importance and it does not necessarily resonate his personal political view.

The story of the series is set against the backdrop of Parliament attack in Delhi that took place in 2001.

“A storyteller tells a story because he believes in the story, and the story could be agnostic of the political belief. This is the story of a man who refuses to give up on something that he believes in over a period of 20 years and in the end, he unveils the truth. During an investigation, he stumbles upon something and though the world does not believe him, and insists him to move on, he continues to search for the truth,” Neeraj told IANS.

The filmmaker, who is known for work like “Special 26”, “Baby”, “Naam Shabana” and “Aiyaary”, has cast Kay Kay Menon, Karan Tacker, Meher Vij, Sana Khan, Saiyami Kher, Vinay Pathak, Vipul Gupta in “Special Op”.

In the story, Kay Kay plays the protagonist Himmat Singh who, for around 20 years, has been searching the truth behind the 2001 terror attack.

Does the story show details of what exactly happened during the attack? “It is not a documentary. The story is set against the 2001 Parliament attack, and when we look back on our recent history, the incident is very deeply entrenched in our psyche. There were multiple theories moving around at that point of time, on why and how it happened. What I did is, I picked up right from there and told the story of this 19-year-old search in the series,” replied Neeraj.

(Arundhuti Banerjee can be contacted at arundhuti.b@ians.in)