Writer-director Manish Gupta likes to build up suspense stories out of real-life incidents

Yathesht Pratiraj

Writer-director Manish Gupta has the knack of picking real-life stories and turning them into films. Gupta, who is known for films like The Stoneman Murders, Rahasya, Section 375, and 420 IPC, is now back with a new film, One Friday Night. The film is streaming on JioCinema.

Talking about his latest film, he says, “This is my sixth film as a director. One Friday Night is essentially a relationship drama, while the plot is set like a Hitchcockesque suspense thriller.”

Filmmaking is a long process that takes a lot of prep from both the actors and the director. Talking about how he prepped the actors for the film, he says, “I had instructed Milind to be himself because I had seen a video of his wife, who is 25 years younger than him. His cue to act was basically not to act and be what he is in real life.”

Manish says the overall experience of directing this film was extremely smooth, except for a slight hiccup during the shoot with Raveena. He says, “While working with Milind and Vidhi was good, there was a slight friction between Raveena and me because of her make-up, which I did not agree with. But apart from creative differences, she is good to work with.”

“Over the years, I have created my own genre, wherein I take a real case and make it into a suspense story. I make these films on a very small budget, so the returns are assured. A piece of advice I would love to give to aspiring directors is to be very firm on your vision as to what you want to make and only pick up stories that you are really passionate about,” he adds.

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