Bollywood has long explored the formulaic love triangle from Abrar Alvi’s Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam (1962) to Homi Adajania’s more recent Cocktail (2012) — approaching the interrelationships from many angles, and often pitting a forbidden love of sorts against the more socially acceptable kind.
Director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s sophomore venture, Bareilly ki Barfi will soon serve its take on the formula, and co-stars Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao insist their upcoming romantic comedy looks at the relationships in a new light. “It’s very quirky and is a comedy of errors,” says Sanon who plays Bitti Mishra, explaining how even the banter between Khurrana’s and Rao’s characters as Bitti’s potential love interests is a refreshing treatment of the equation.
“We’ve only seen love triangles in a filmy setup”, adds Khurrana who essays publisher Chirag Dubey, “But these relationships are rooted in reality.” Elaborating on the realism that he found endearing about the script, Rao says, “It’s entertaining cinema, it’s a situational comedy but it is not buffoonery — it’s rooted in a realistic world.”
The film follows the tale of Bitti as she goes on a quest to find the author of a book called Bareilly ki Barfi , believing that he would understand her unconventional nature since she is just like his character. In addition to referring to the film’s great visuals on Lucknow’s food and sweets, as Khurrana points out, the film’s title makes Bitti its focal point: “Bitti is Bareilly ki Barfi,” says Sanon. What is unique about the film’s love triangle is in fact that Bitti is not looking for love, but is instead searching for someone to understand her and accept her for who she is. But both writer and publisher fall in love with Bitti and compete for her affections.
While the actors have all worked in the genre of romantic comedies, Rao has essayed more serious, dark, and sometimes outright vile characters on screen. “For me it was a lot of fun exploring these two different shades of Pritam Vidrohi”, says Rao, who plays the author of the film’s eponymous novel. “He’s meek and simple, but in the second half of the same scene he becomes an aggressive guy,” shares the actor, talking about how he enjoyed portraying the extreme ranges of his character’s personality traits. “It was almost like preparing for two different characters”, he says.
While talking about working with second-time director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, the co-stars gush about the relatability present in her work. “She’s so rooted and so culturally aware,” says Khurrana. “She knows the lowest common denominator of the country and easily incorporates that onto celluloid,” says the actor, referring to the success of her first film, the comedy-drama Nil Battey Sannata (2016). Rao adds, “You can smell-town India in all these characters.”
The exchange soon steers towards how enjoyable the process of shooting was. Khurrana recounts between giggles how amusing the small tiffs between Tiwari and cinematographer Gavemic U. Ary were: explosions of Tamil arguments in the middle of Uttar Pradesh’s busy streets. Sanon, on the other hand, enjoyed dancing to Govinda’s songs to celebrate the birthday of the elderly man who owns Bitti’s house in Lucknow. What is evident is that all three actors were charmed by the city. “There’s the new, modern and developed Gomti Nagar, and also area of Hazratganj with its very old world charm,” says Rao. “It’s like two different worlds coexisting together,” he adds, an ironic insight that also describes his role in the film.
