For Neeraj Udhwani and Ishita Moitra, the writers of Netflix’s new sequence Single Papa, the thought for the present got here throughout a visit to Goa on the airport. “We noticed this visible of a macho man holding a child in his arms, and he was looking for a diaper station.” Whereas ladies’s restrooms normally have diaper-changing amenities, males’s restrooms typically don’t. Some public establishments, like airports, supply household rooms the place both mum or dad can feed or change a child’s diaper. However this one incident bought the writers fascinated with how, institutionally, elevating and nursing a child remains to be thought-about a girl’s duty reasonably than a person’s.
Neeraj and Ishita on giving a humourous contact to Single Papa
Whereas Neeraj and Ishita, who’re additionally a married couple, had a structural concept for the story, not being mother and father themselves meant they weren’t emotionally pushed to pen it down on the time. Nonetheless, after welcoming their daughter years later, they felt a stronger urge than ever to inform this story.
Neeraj, who has beforehand penned scripts for movies like Mere Dad Ki Maruti and Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji, believes humour is one of the best ways to method tough subjects. Ishita, who collaborated with Neeraj on Mere Dad Ki Maruti and can be recognized for writing Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, echoed the sentiment. “Because it was about adoption and a father’s love for a kid, the emotional elements got here in naturally. Comedy-drama can be a really distinctive method, you realize. You don’t see a lot of it within the OTT area. So we additionally thought that this might make it slightly completely different from different reveals which can be on air or which have been on. So these are all acutely aware choices that we took whereas writing,” shared Neeraj speaking to mid-day.
Casting Dayanand Shetty as Manny
Single Papa brings collectively an fascinating mixture of actors together with Kunal Kemmu, Manoj Pahwa, Ayesha Raza, Prajakta Koli, and Neha Dhupia. Nonetheless, one of many largest shock parts was the casting of Dayanand Shetty, popularly often called CID’s beloved Daya, as a manny (male nanny). The actor, who spent years on display screen breaking down doorways and flexing his energy, is seen right here in a tender, mild avatar, the place his expertise lie in tiptoeing round sleeping infants reasonably than smashing doorways.
So whose concept was this sudden casting alternative? Neeraj credit the complete Single Papa workforce, together with co-director Hitesh Kevalia, showrunner Shashank Khaitan, and producer Samar Khan. “Manny’s character was at all times written from the start. So we knew that we needed to do one thing completely different and distinctive right here. The position was at all times written as a really strong-built, muscular, macho man, however somebody who’s a softie at coronary heart. So it could be enjoyable to see somebody who has an motion picture, somebody who breaks bones, altering diapers,” Neeraj shared.
He additional added, “After which as quickly because the casting course of started, I believe instinctively all of us together with Netflix thought that if we method somebody like Daya, it may very well be casting in opposition to the grain. It’s like seeing somebody do one thing otherwise. If this present was made within the 70s or 80s, we’d have forged Dharmendra. So it’s one thing like that- a robust man doing one thing that’s very mild and candy.”
Ishita sums it up merely, “He represents the form of masculinity that we consider in. He’s at all times robust and delicate.”
Getting the fitting forged
Whereas some initiatives are written with sure actors in thoughts, the script of Single Papa was developed in components, and solely a lot later did they begin imagining actors who would swimsuit the characters. Thankfully, for all of them their first decisions had been finalised for the ultimate output. “We developed it over an extended time period. Someplace alongside the best way, we knew we wished somebody like Kunal and somebody like Dayanand for Manny, however that got here slightly later within the course of. Initially, we targeted on the core story of a single father adopting a child and his household. The nuances, the insights into parenthood, got here in later. As soon as we had a strong dialogue draft in place, all of us naturally started placing faces to the characters,” shares Ishita.