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On September 23, the nominations for the 54th International Emmy Awards were announced and, in a significant achievement for India, the SonyLIV series Real Kashmir Football Club bagged a nomination in the Best Drama Series category. The recognition came as a pleasant surprise for the team, who are understandably on cloud nine. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Hungama, Simaab Hashmi, the lead writer and an executive producer of Real Kashmir Football Club, spoke about the making of the show, its portrayal of Kashmir, the unexpected Emmy honour, the possibility of Season 2 and a lot more.
Congratulations on the Emmy nomination. This is huge…
Thank you so much. We are still in disbelief. Everytime someone calls me and congratulates me, it takes me a second to process that yes, our show has indeed made it to the Emmys! It’s not something you imagine will happen. Someone said that it is TV ka Oscars (laughs).
How did you get associated with the show as a writer and executive producer?
I came across a newspaper article about the football club. I was amazed to learn there’s a football team in Kashmir. What further added to my surprise was that a Kashmiri Pandit and a Kashmiri Muslim came together to start this team. It sounded too good to be true. I asked myself, ‘How did this happen and how come nobody knows about it?’. I met a writer friend and told him that we should do something about this story. Meanwhile, I also met a common friend, who eventually become a producer on the show – Vishakha Singh. She also essayed the role of Manav Kaul’s wife. She was completely sold by the idea. We didn’t know whether it would be made into a film or a series, but we definitely wanted to work on it. She asked me to call the owners and get the rights.
I called them, but by then, bahut logon ka call chala gaya tha unko. As you know, Bollywood is always looking for the next great story, right? So, they told me, ‘This person called me, that person called me’. They also said, ‘We are busy. Come and talk to us’. I told Vishakha that we should head to Srinagar. The next day, we were there. We told the owners that we had landed and they couldn’t believe it. I told them, ‘Aapne hi bola tha ki aa jaao’! This was the person whose character was eventually played by Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub bhai. We met him and got a first-hand experience of Kashmiri hospitality. He also introduced me to the Pandit owner, the late Sandeep Chattoo, who is no longer with us.
Then, we kept going back and spent months there. We have heard so many stories about Kashmir that are told from an outsider’s perspective. We were clear that until we understood what the people were really like, we shouldn’t make this series. We would stay in people’s homes because they were so warm and inviting.
Later, we met Kilian Kerwin, the seasoned producer of Delhi Crime. He loved the subject and immediately said, ‘We are making the show’. We met a lot of platforms, but since this was a very different story, we would often be told, ‘Kashmir ki story toh yeh nahin lag rahi hai’. My response was, ‘Exactly! That’s why it should be made. It’s not a regular tale of Kashmir’. It’s a story of hope, contrary to the dark tales that we have usually seen set in the Valley. Thankfully, Kilian believed in the idea and decided to put money into it. So, we made the show without having a platform on board.
Kilian brought in Mahesh Mathai, the legendary ad filmmaker, as the director. He became the captain of the ship and guided us throughout. Once the show was completed, SonyLIV came on board. They were great partners; Danish Khan, Saugata Mukherjee and the whole team were very excited about the show. The rest is history, especially after what has happened with the Emmy nomination.
Were Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub and Manav Kaul the original choices for the roles of Sohail Meer and Shirish Kemmu?
They were the only two choices. Nowadays, we hear that ‘Yeh banda famous hai. Iske kaafi Instagram followers hain. Isko cast kar lo’. But that’s not how we functioned. Manav Kaul is a Kashmiri himself. When we met him, we instantly realized that he would be apt. The same applied to Zeeshan. Both actors are great; it was surprising that they had never worked together.
They were very collaborative. We would make up scenes on the set. Mahesh sir was so nice and liberal that he would tell us, ‘You boys just figure it out’! Me, Manav bhai and Zeeshan would then sit in the van and be like ‘Iss scene ko aise karte hai’. So, we did tweak some of the scenes.
Can you give us an example of a scene which was improvised on the set?
After the wedding takes place on the football ground, there’s a confrontation scene between Manav bhai and Zeeshan about the future of the club. That scene was very different initially. We had doubts about whether it was working or not. While the production team was setting up the scene, Zeeshan, Manav bhai, Kilian and I sat together and created a new version of it. Then, Mahesh sir came in and added his magic sprinkle on top of it.
How did the people of Kashmir react to the show?
I can’t tell you the number of people who have reached out. Even while we were making the show and doing our research, everyone was so happy that we were telling a story about the football club. After the show was released, several local personalities, including RJs, reached out to me on Instagram or somehow got my number and messaged me, ‘Thank you, Simaab, for showing us how we actually are’! Some even remarked, ‘The normal day-to-day life that we have has never been represented on celluloid’.
From the start, my idea was that mujhe Kashmiri ke kitchen ki kahaani jaanni hai. Their lives are just like ours, and the same goes for their joys and troubles. Of course, they have larger problems as well, but I wanted to depict the human experience of a Kashmiri. The best way I can put it is that Kashmiris felt represented.
I met so many women there who are working, running businesses and leading their families. We have rarely seen that represented in popular culture. Even though our show is about a men’s football team, each and every female character was very important. Some of them were even leading certain tracks in the show.
For the first time in my life, I heard Kashmiri abuses, thanks to your show…
(Laughs) We used to hang out with a lot of Kashmiri boys. We noticed that while talking among themselves, they would use choicy words! I would ask them what they meant. They would say, ‘Yeh so-and-so Hindi gaali ka Kashmiri equivalent hain’! I would note everything down. Adhir Bhat, who is also a Kashmiri, wrote the dialogues and helped us figure out the correct words to use.
How many days did it take to shoot Real Kashmir Football Club?
I know it feels like a very long show, but we finished the shoot in record time – just 55 days! And this was despite all the football sequences, which involved so many different angles, setups and cameras. One thing I learnt was that shooting football is like shooting action!
Will there be a Season 2? After all, the show ends by informing viewers that Real Kashmir Football Club had another round of success two years after the events shown in the first season, in 2018…
There are a lot of stories about the club that remain untold. Our show came out last December and suddenly, people are now texting and calling me to say, ‘This is such a good show’. So, I am hoping that the Emmy honour may lead us to a second season. We have plenty of stories left to tell.
I remember once I randomly told Sandeep Chattoo, ‘Sir, this is such a fairy tale story’. He replied, ‘Let me correct you that this is not a fairy tale story. Fairy tales come to an end, while Real Kashmir is forever’. So, we hope to tell more stories from Kashmir.
