How Vikrant Massey's 'Musafir Cafe' looks to give romance a fillip on streaming
The Netflix release, also starring Vedika Pinto and Mahima Makwana, is a breath of fresh air at a time the romantic genre has had a hit-and-miss affair
The romantic genre has had a hit-and-miss affair, particularly on OTT, with only a few memorable outings in Little Things and Mismatched. But Sharanya seeks to add to that universe with a narrative that begins from young love and moves to a more mature one. With Terribly Tiny Tales, she has made telling love stories catered to the young audience her specialty.
“I only care about relationship dramas,” she says. “I’d happily spend another decade of my career trying to do only them. I am constantly curious of how we love and why we love. If we answer it, the audiences will watch.”
For Musafir Cafe, Sharanya turned to Divya Prakash Dubey’s bestselling Hindi novel of the same name for inspiration. Netflix, she said, wasn’t involved then. Instead, the strategy to write for herself and not meet a platform’s brief ended up being a blessing in disguise. “It has to push itself out of you; there has to be urgency for it to come out,” says Sharanya.
Taking two written episodes to Netflix, she won them over with her honesty. The show was greenlit after she read drafts of two episodes. “As writers, the greatest luxury is to be able to tell a story and have it see the light of the day. The greatest privilege is when people trust your written word and bet money on it,” she says. “Netflix took a punt on us.”
Netflix and Terribly Tiny Tales found a director in Ruchir Arun, whose claim to fame is directing Little Things. Having avoided the genre so as not to be boxed in, the filmmaker was game when Sharanya came with the love story, especially at a time when romance makes a fleeting appearance on the medium.
“There were mountains. I was getting to do songs (there are five original songs and two licenced ones). I was like, let’s do it,” says Ruchir. “We went for the jugular with this one. We wanted to create ’90s ka comfort.”
Vikrant plays Chander in two timelines. In the first, he is young man madly in love with Sudha (played by Vedika), while in the second, he has fallen for Preeti (played by Mahima). “There’s thairaav, more settled love. Most of us who have grown up want to experience that kind of love,” notes Ruchir.
For the actresses, the show goes beyond them just being treated as lady loves. Vedika says: “We have been given agency by the writing. While Musafir Cafe is definitely a love story, it has a lot to do with individual journeys as well. All three characters are headstrong, and even with their own complexities and contradictions they are on their own journeys.”
For Mahima, it was an opportunity to be more than “a catalyst to the guy”. “Preeti doesn’t need a man to complete her. She chooses peace. There’s a great partnership between her and Chander; there’s spark, which is very beautiful,” she says.
For both Vedika and Mahima, it was also great to have a male character who is “vulnerable” and “make for broken, beautiful partners to girlfriend,” notes Makwana. “As women, we all want to see that on screen as well.”
Musafir Cafe is Vikrant’s second romantic drama show after Broken But Beautiful. “As artistes, we are on a quest to show our worldview through our work and voice,” he says. “I have been on that quest of what men feel since Balika Vadhu. I find it endearing to open up your heart and just be. I am lucky that creators have seen that voice within me.”
The marker of a good romance, particularly one that has two couples in the fray, is its ability to make audiences root for one of them. “It is going to happen,” says Ruchir. Adds Sharanya: “There is no escaping it.”
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The romantic genre has had a hit-and-miss affair, particularly on OTT, with only a few memorable outings in Little Things and Mismatched. But Sharanya seeks to add to that universe with a narrative that begins from young love and moves to a more mature one. With Terribly Tiny Tales, she has made telling love stories catered to the young audience her specialty.
“I only care about relationship dramas,” she says. “I’d happily spend another decade of my career trying to do only them. I am constantly curious of how we love and why we love. If we answer it, the audiences will watch.”
For Musafir Cafe, Sharanya turned to Divya Prakash Dubey’s bestselling Hindi novel of the same name for inspiration. Netflix, she said, wasn’t involved then. Instead, the strategy to write for herself and not meet a platform’s brief ended up being a blessing in disguise. “It has to push itself out of you; there has to be urgency for it to come out,” says Sharanya.
Taking two written episodes to Netflix, she won them over with her honesty. The show was greenlit after she read drafts of two episodes. “As writers, the greatest luxury is to be able to tell a story and have it see the light of the day. The greatest privilege is when people trust your written word and bet money on it,” she says. “Netflix took a punt on us.”
Netflix and Terribly Tiny Tales found a director in Ruchir Arun, whose claim to fame is directing Little Things. Having avoided the genre so as not to be boxed in, the filmmaker was game when Sharanya came with the love story, especially at a time when romance makes a fleeting appearance on the medium.
“There were mountains. I was getting to do songs (there are five original songs and two licenced ones). I was like, let’s do it,” says Ruchir. “We went for the jugular with this one. We wanted to create ’90s ka comfort.”
Vikrant plays Chander in two timelines. In the first, he is young man madly in love with Sudha (played by Vedika), while in the second, he has fallen for Preeti (played by Mahima). “There’s thairaav, more settled love. Most of us who have grown up want to experience that kind of love,” notes Ruchir.
For the actresses, the show goes beyond them just being treated as lady loves. Vedika says: “We have been given agency by the writing. While Musafir Cafe is definitely a love story, it has a lot to do with individual journeys as well. All three characters are headstrong, and even with their own complexities and contradictions they are on their own journeys.”
For Mahima, it was an opportunity to be more than “a catalyst to the guy”. “Preeti doesn’t need a man to complete her. She chooses peace. There’s a great partnership between her and Chander; there’s spark, which is very beautiful,” she says.
For both Vedika and Mahima, it was also great to have a male character who is “vulnerable” and “make for broken, beautiful partners to girlfriend,” notes Makwana. “As women, we all want to see that on screen as well.”
Musafir Cafe is Vikrant’s second romantic drama show after Broken But Beautiful. “As artistes, we are on a quest to show our worldview through our work and voice,” he says. “I have been on that quest of what men feel since Balika Vadhu. I find it endearing to open up your heart and just be. I am lucky that creators have seen that voice within me.”
The marker of a good romance, particularly one that has two couples in the fray, is its ability to make audiences root for one of them. “It is going to happen,” says Ruchir. Adds Sharanya: “There is no escaping it.”
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The romantic genre has had a hit-and-miss affair, particularly on OTT, with only a few memorable outings in Little Things and Mismatched. But Sharanya seeks to add to that universe with a narrative that begins from young love and moves to a more mature one. With Terribly Tiny Tales, she has made telling love stories catered to the young audience her specialty.
“I only care about relationship dramas,” she says. “I’d happily spend another decade of my career trying to do only them. I am constantly curious of how we love and why we love. If we answer it, the audiences will watch.”
For Musafir Cafe, Sharanya turned to Divya Prakash Dubey’s bestselling Hindi novel of the same name for inspiration. Netflix, she said, wasn’t involved then. Instead, the strategy to write for herself and not meet a platform’s brief ended up being a blessing in disguise. “It has to push itself out of you; there has to be urgency for it to come out,” says Sharanya.
Taking two written episodes to Netflix, she won them over with her honesty. The show was greenlit after she read drafts of two episodes. “As writers, the greatest luxury is to be able to tell a story and have it see the light of the day. The greatest privilege is when people trust your written word and bet money on it,” she says. “Netflix took a punt on us.”
Netflix and Terribly Tiny Tales found a director in Ruchir Arun, whose claim to fame is directing Little Things. Having avoided the genre so as not to be boxed in, the filmmaker was game when Sharanya came with the love story, especially at a time when romance makes a fleeting appearance on the medium.
“There were mountains. I was getting to do songs (there are five original songs and two licenced ones). I was like, let’s do it,” says Ruchir. “We went for the jugular with this one. We wanted to create ’90s ka comfort.”
Vikrant plays Chander in two timelines. In the first, he is young man madly in love with Sudha (played by Vedika), while in the second, he has fallen for Preeti (played by Mahima). “There’s thairaav, more settled love. Most of us who have grown up want to experience that kind of love,” notes Ruchir.
For the actresses, the show goes beyond them just being treated as lady loves. Vedika says: “We have been given agency by the writing. While Musafir Cafe is definitely a love story, it has a lot to do with individual journeys as well. All three characters are headstrong, and even with their own complexities and contradictions they are on their own journeys.”
For Mahima, it was an opportunity to be more than “a catalyst to the guy”. “Preeti doesn’t need a man to complete her. She chooses peace. There’s a great partnership between her and Chander; there’s spark, which is very beautiful,” she says.
For both Vedika and Mahima, it was also great to have a male character who is “vulnerable” and “make for broken, beautiful partners to girlfriend,” notes Makwana. “As women, we all want to see that on screen as well.”
Musafir Cafe is Vikrant’s second romantic drama show after Broken But Beautiful. “As artistes, we are on a quest to show our worldview through our work and voice,” he says. “I have been on that quest of what men feel since Balika Vadhu. I find it endearing to open up your heart and just be. I am lucky that creators have seen that voice within me.”
The marker of a good romance, particularly one that has two couples in the fray, is its ability to make audiences root for one of them. “It is going to happen,” says Ruchir. Adds Sharanya: “There is no escaping it.”
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