CINEMA SHOULDN'T BE ABOUT FORMULAS; IT SHOULD BE ABOUT EXPERIENCES: SURAAG SAGAR

WHEN Christopher Nolan's Interstellar opened in theaters, a young Suraag Sagar walked out transformed.

- A SHARADHAA

"The experience I went through watching Interstellar—the way it made me feel—I just wanted to give the same kind of feeling to people," he recalls. "That was my first point of inspiration. The power of storytelling, the emotions in that film, they moved me deeply. That's when I knew I wanted to tell stories that could touch people the same way."

That moment of cinematic awakening pushed Suraag, who had been dabbling in short films, into filmmaking seriously. His time at Prague Film School, where Thithi director Raam Reddy also studied, cemented his calling. "I did a thesis film called Entropy. That turning point earned me a name as an acclaimed short filmmaker and gave me the confidence to pursue feature films."

Now, Suraag makes his feature debut with Nidradevi Next Door, a romance-drama with an unusual hook: an insomniac whose world unravels until he meets a mysterious woman who brings him peace. "If you have love, you have peace; if you have peace, you have sleep," he explains. "Everyone has struggled with sleeplessness at some point, but what if the reason behind it is an emotional scar? That's what drew me to the story," says Suraag, ahead of the film's release on September 12.