Neeraj Pandey recalls how Special OPS hoardings were pulled down, his reaction to A Thursday being called A Wednesday’s sequel

Neeraj Pandey refuses to take credit for the successful thrillers he’s delivered at the box office. “The biggest epics are not thrillers. So it’s not dependent on any genre,” he said.
A glance at his directorials like A Wednesday, Special 26, Ba and Rustom shows that most of his plotlines thrust a common man or ordinary people into the middle of action, leading to unexpected turns. Speaking to , the filmmaker said the aim was never to create a trend.
“The narrative like A Wednesday has happened before. So to say that we started a trend would be wrong. Every year we have a film which sort of spoke about a generational thing through the eyes of a common man or woman. It’s just taking over the baton, not starting something without any precedent.”

Neeraj dabbled in the digital medium with Special OPS and Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story. Recalling how Special OPS had to initially struggle to find audience due to the outbreak of Covid-19, he said the web show solely survived on word of mouth.
Kay Kay Menon played the lead character of RAW agent Himmat Singh in Special OPS.
“There was zero marketing and publicity for Special OPS. So, when the first lockdown happened, our entire team was absolutely clueless how it will be received. There was no outdoor and all our press meets were cancelled. The MCD had taken off all the hoardings to put up Covid awareness posters. We only had the trailer and little bit of mention here and there on social media,” Neeraj shared.
He said the audience eventually liked it and the word of mouth that followed was “the biggest endorsement that could ever happen on any product.”

While many of his projects revolve around undercover agents, spies and national threats, looking out for different subjects is his priority. “One natural magnet is you’re always looking for something that hasn’t been done,” he said. But does that put him under any kind of pressure?
Akshay Kumar reprised his role of secret agent Ajay Singh Rajput from Ba in its prequel Naam Shabana, starring Taapsee Pannu in the lead.
“I won’t call it pressure,” he said, adding that these are rather “interesting and challenging times.” According to him, if the ecosystem prompts filmmakers to take careful decisions in terms of choosing a story, they also need to up their game every time. “And if everyone is raising their bar, it’s a good thing, the audience is in for a treat,” Neeraj stated.
“I just expect we keep getting chances to make films. As long as our film gives us the response which opens another door to chase another project, I’m happy. Its longevity is never on the horizon. It gives you confidence after your project has been respected the audience,” he added.
So how does he ensure the audience feels content and convinced with the way his thrillers or stories unfold? On a thoughtful note, he shared that “you cannot pick a thread of your thinking and then go about your business.” Instead, he called it a complex process. “What triggers at that point of time in the story, situation where you want to rally around a character and give some relief to the audience, is a function of that moment. It’s a combination of various factors coming together. Your job as a storyteller is to tell a particular story. So, you’ll make it as convincing as possible.”
Neeraj, who’s also directed MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, has had the best collaboration with Akshay Kumar. A 10-minute fight sequence in Ba also turned the tables for Taapsee Pannu, with whom he later made the prequel Naam Shabana. Lauding their working relationship, Neeraj said it’s all collaborative. “All these guys were equally eager to take the plunge to whatever we were attempting. And they gave it all. They believed in our vision,”

And how did he react when many called the recent release A Thursday, starring Yami Gautam, a sequel to his film A Wednesday? “I was getting congratulatory calls for a film I had nothing to do with,” he laughed.
Neeraj Pandey, who recently bank rolled Operation Romeo, has Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan starrer Vikram Vedha as his next production.