'Make exciting films if you really want people to buy tickets'

HERE WAS AN interesting conversation this reporter overheard last week. At the Cinevesture International Film Festival, held in Chandigarh between March 20 and 23, an independent filmmaker described writer-director-producer Vikramaditya Motwane as "unpredictable"—you never know what he'll make next, there's no one genre you can slot him in, and he breaks the mould after every film he works on. His journey, this indie filmmaker said, is un-emulatable.

- GARIMA SADHWANI

That really is an interesting observation. Motwane's directorial debut Udaan released in 2010, following which he made Lootera (2013), Trapped (2017), Bhavesh Joshi Superhero (2018), Sacred Games (2018-19), AK vs AK (2020), Jubilee (2023), Indi(r)a's Emergency (2023), and CTRL (2024)—all of them about distinct subjects.

Now, fresh off the success of his Netflix Hindi-language crime drama thriller, Black Warrant (2025), Motwane is already working on his next feature. But what keeps him going and makes him keep experimenting? "As a movie buff, I love all kinds of movies. I just get excited by stories. I get excited by the potential to see how a story will translate itself from a single line onto the screen. That's what drives me—the excitement to tell a story in a new way, in a different way," he offers.

While Motwane's passion is telling all kinds of stories, there's one genre he loves a lot—superhero films. He says, "I love superhero films to death, and I hope to make more of them."

In fact, he is next producing actor Radhika Apte's debut directorial feature Koyta, which also has themes of action-fantasy. Talking about the film, he says, "It's a film about a migrant sugarcane worker who suddenly discovers after an operation that she has superpowers, and she's not the only one out there." He laughs as he adds, "That's all I can say right now."