‘It’s Almost Impossible To Make A Love Story Today’: ‘Hasee Toh Phasee’ Director Vinil Mathew On Bollywood’s Mid-Budget Romance Crisis (EXCLUSIVE)

Filmmaker Vinil Mathew delivered one of the most beloved rom-coms of the last decade with "Hasee Toh Phasee", starring Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra. However, the film didn’t receive its full share of applause immediately. Over a decade later, it has developed a devoted fanbase and is now widely considered worthy of a big-screen re-release.

Ahead of the re-release, Mathew spoke exclusively to Variety about the industry’s growing obsession with scale, spectacle and algorithm-friendly storytelling, and why intimate mid-budget love stories are increasingly struggling to find support in greenlight rooms. The filmmaker also revealed that he has long wanted to make another romance and already has a script ready, which he co-wrote with filmmaker Harshavardhan Kulkarni — but despite his efforts, the project has yet to receive the green light.

Is getting "Hasee Toh Phasee" as a script greenlit as easy or as tricky as it was a decade ago?

It's terrible. It's impossible now, I would say. Because the same team between me and Harshavardhan Kulkarni (who wrote "Hasee Toh Phasee" with Mathew), we've had another script and we've been trying. Just getting a love story greenlit without something that looks like an obvious drama or those typical plot points, which is not plot heavy, has become very difficult. Because Hasee Toh Phasee, of course, had a plot point where things happen in seven days. But the whole idea was to not stress on that. It was more about lived experiences, real characters, deliberate everyday things, and the ordinariness of life. All those things were what gave it flavor, joy, and everything else.

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So when you are pivoting around that, it's very difficult for most people to imagine what a love story would eventually land like. So at the script level, it's very tough now to get things made. I mean, right now, I think even getting things made is difficult. But a love story, yes, that is even more difficult. Because this genre or at least the films we were trying to do, like between me and Harsh, both of us have been writing and directing partners, we struggle when the tone of voice is not as dramatic or the script doesn't shout out to you in terms of drama or plot. It's always a struggle to get those films made. It's only when it finally gets made that people say, “Oh, okay, you were looking at things like that.” But at the pitching stage, it's a struggle. No one wants to experiment. Hardly anyone.

And of course, if you're looking at a commercial blockbuster, maybe these films aren't those films. So in that sense, a lot of actors who said no to it probably saw it much before us that this is not going to give you the 150 crore kind of blockbuster. So it doesn't fit into their scheme of a portfolio at that point. So yeah, it's always a struggle when you're making slightly more...

In an era where there is this larger than life hero being worshipped, where posters are filled with violence, blood, and weapons, tell me, is placing a mid budget romantic drama in theatres becoming impossible?

I would say so. Because, like I said, we've had a similar script that we've been wanting to make and, despite me making three films and the writer making two films after that, we still find it a slog. We've not been able to put it together or get it made. So despite the love you get and everything else, it's tough to get it cast and then funded.

But then what are these rooms exactly greenlighting? What's the criteria? Do they not want to make these films? What exactly is happening?

I think when you're in the commercial mainstream space, the first question anyone asks is: “Is it going to make the kind of money that would make the time invested in the project worthwhile?” So that's the underlying thing. Then you look for something you can be extremely confident about, a topic that will have that kind of impact.

As an actor, if you have limited time and you're choosing between three films in a year, you want to know where this film is going to land. So sometimes it becomes too much of a risk for people to take that punt and say, “Okay, let me dive in and see where this lands.” I think it's the same for studios as well. How do you deal with something like this? On paper, it doesn't look like a sure shot winner, but someone has to take a chance. Now, because fewer films are being greenlit and because of all the theatrical ups and downs most films are facing, people are even more careful. I wouldn't blame them, but that's probably the reason why it's tough.

But does marketing have something to do with this?

Yes, but I think it's not just marketing. It's also the people who are greenlighting films, the gatekeepers themselves, the agents advising actors. If everyone is looking for a safety net, then you will only get something that has already been done or seen before. You're never going to do something new or take that risk.

The other problem is that films like these sit somewhere in between genres. They're not out and out indie or artistic films. It's not an Aram Nagar film. Nor is it a mainstream blockbuster like Durandar or Animal. So when you have something in between, it's not just the marketing people. I feel journalists, everyone in the ecosystem, they are unsure how to react to a film like this.

It's a tough spot for filmmakers who are in the middle of the road, trying to do something where they want to entertain but do it a little differently. They don't want to shout out loud. For those people, it's always a struggle. It's not just love stories. Anything with a tonality that is not at either end of the spectrum becomes a tough battle.

But in the process, we're somewhere killing the genre, right? The feel good film, the romantic film. I can't even remember the last one I saw.

Yes, but that's how the whole ecosystem kills it. In fact, when we completed 10 years of Hasee Toh Phasee, we were trying to get some sort of conversation around it. Privately, everyone says they love the film, but virtually nobody came out to support it publicly or celebrate it. So sometimes it is tough being in the middle of the road in filmmaking, when you're not at either end of the spectrum. And that becomes a problem.

But tell me, what are you working on now?

Like I said, there is one film that Harsh (Kulkarni) and I have written together, which is again in the same relationship genre. We've been trying to get that started. But to answer your earlier question, yes, it's almost impossible to get a love story on board right now. So I'm developing a couple of other films, maybe three or four, in a different genre. I'm collaborating with writers and working on them. Hopefully one of them will work out, and then I'll be able to tell you exactly what will happen next.

But I realized something recently. Earlier, I used to work on one film at a time, finish it, and then move on to the second one, waiting for it to happen. Post Covid, I've changed my strategy. I thought, okay, let me work on a couple of projects simultaneously and see which one gets made first. So yes, there are three or four things I'm developing right now. I've got some interesting ideas, mostly in the thriller genre.