How Titan Story director Robbie Grewal recreated JRD Tata's ultimate startup story for the screen

The Swiss watchmaker’s slur irked JRD so much that he returned to India and threw a challenge to his protege, Xerxes Desai. “You have five years to create a watch,” he told him curtly, not before removing the watch from his wrist in a grand gesture and laying it down on the table.

“I will not wear a watch until we make one,” JRD said with flourish.

All of which makes great material for good cinema.The rest of that story is what unfolds in a six-episode absorbing drama Made in India: A Titan Story, currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

'I had a story to tell'

Looking back, filmmaker Robbie Grewal, (of Samay, Jewel Thief-The Heist Begins fame), in a chat with The Federal admits that when he was approached to make a bio-drama on Titan, based on a book written by journalist Vinay Kamath, he was clueless of the story behind the brand.

“When I was approached by my friend Sunil Bohra and his wife, Prabhleen Sandhu, I was keen to tell the story of such an iconic brand. Who would not want to be part of such a project? Like most people, I have also worn a Titan watch, but I had no clue what transpired behind the making of the Titan watch to reach a wrist,” says Grewal. The filmmaker was wrapping up the Amazon MX Player series Bhay: The Gaurav Tiwari Mystery at that time, also a biopic series, on a paranormal investigator.

And, when Prabhleen Sandhu, the producer asked him to take over the Titan project, after work on it had begun nearly two years ago with another director, he agreed. Initially, he may have been overwhelmed by the responsibility of a narrative involving a highly-respected figure like JRD and a company like the Tatas. But, he let all that slide, he shares.

To a question on whether he feared the risk of ending up making a very flattering biopic, Grewal says, “I dropped all the paraphernalia linked to JRD Tata, Titan and that the Tatas were opening up for the first time. They are very media shy and don’t like to tom-tom about themselves. I just shut all that out. I had a wonderful story to tell and I decided to focus on telling the story in the best way I could, with the best team who could deliver the vision I had.”

Giving JRD the respect he deserves

He was true to the script written by Karan Vyas, he says, and to be careful to treat his key characters with the dignity they commanded. Grewal explains, “There is a scene when JRD removes his watch and drops it on a chess board swearing never to wear one until an Indian watch is made. I could have done it more dramatically and have him throw the watch in the dustbin and scream some profanity. But, we were very conscious of giving the man, this lovely gentleman called JRD Tata, the respect he deserves. We didn't go overboard with the telling. We showed negative aspects, like when the newly-made Titan watch stops working in the third episode. The journey is not all hunky-dory for them.” (The series also features Titan leadership brazenly poaching on HMT’s top management team)

Also, Grewal who had four months to work on the pre-production, worked hard to ensure everything was chalked out clearly before shooting began.

“Not just the location detailing, the entire team spent a lot of time together before the shoot. We had five to seven days of script readings. Even without the readings, Jim [Jim Sarbh] and I would sit for hours discussing his character Xerxes Desai and why he was who he was, etc.,” says Grewal.

Challenge of period drama

A key challenge he faced was that the series is a period story set in the '80s. And “stories of such ilk” require a lot of money to make, because they have to recreate that era through sets, and “move cars of that time on the road”.

Grewal elaborates, “To create the iconic '80s, to make JRD's house, to create a character like JRD on screen, the look and feel is tough. It is difficult and costs a lot of money. To be fair, I had a fantastic producer, the best platform I could ever ask for. But, our resources were limited, the series was not a Rs 100 crore show. So, we had to find a method to the madness, to find a way to get the numbers going in our favour to create that world. I was working on a tight budget for the kind of show it is.”

One of the tools Grewal used to coax viewers into the '80s, was to add archival footage of old Bombay and popular Hindi film tracks. “Classic Hindi film songs are the perfect catalyst for taking you back into that era. When you hear an old Hindi song with the image of Bombay’s Marine Drive, you are just transported into that world, aren't you?” asks Grewal.

He says it was a conscious decision on the team’s part, at the writing stage itself to add songs in the screenplay. “Nearly 70-80 per cent of the songs were decided by us earlier. We may have changed some songs at the edit stage, but we believed what better way than old Hindi music and old images to make people feel and sense a place?” he asks.

However, Grewal confesses that some of the archival footage are not real, refusing to divulge how they achieved it.

“That's a trade secret. The archival footage was created by us. Because nowhere in the world will you get archival footage for exactly the shots you want. Be it Japan or Geneva of the '80s, try googling it, you'll get nothing. You go to NFDC [National Film Development Corporation] or to any film archive body, nowhere will you get that footage. In fact, the archival footage of 10 to 15 seconds we initially had was used up in the first promo itself. I used 12 to 14 minutes of footage in the end,” he shares.

Naseeruddin Shah playing JRD

Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah’s portrayal of JRD was clearly a masterclass in acting. He slid into the role and firmly stayed with the persona of the great industrialist.

According to Grewal, they kept JRD’s character rooted to the ground. He did not give him a “cape” and imbue him with superhuman aura. They wanted people to identify with the legendary figure.

“Sometimes, when actors portray great visionaries you lose your connect with them on screen if they are shown as super human beings. Mr JRD Tata is iconic. He is a leader, who built India. But, we made him appear human. We didn't want a man who is surrounded by 20 people. He sits in the office along with one secretary Ms Pinks and as Xerxes’ mentor, he is an approachable figure. And, Naseer played it so beautifully,” says Grewal.

Also read: Why all Indians, irrespective of caste, owe BR Ambedkar something

Replying to a question on working with a senior actor like Naseer, the director says, “The thing with Naseeruddin Shah is that he comes very prepared on set. He is from the school of theatre, he knows his lines well and has studied his character deeply. So, as a director you got to be on your toes. You have to be crystal clear what you want from him. You can't put [an] arm around him like with Jim Sarbh, who is a buddy and say let's do one more take yaar. You can't tell Mr. Shah that, he is an institution. To be honest, I didn't direct him too much since his first take worked as magic.”

Sarbh, who had no references to fall back on for essaying Xerxes Desai, the founder and first managing director of Titan, relied on information he culled from staff at Titan factory in Hosur. Grewal recalls, “There was not much on the Internet. So, Jim used what he understood from the world Xerxes inhabited at the Titan factory in Hosur. We learnt he was a very honest and a very approachable guy besides being a visionary. So, it is these qualities that Jim imbibed and became that person in spirit.”

They did not put him on a pedestal, he makes mistakes and falls too. “We treated the character with his rough edges as well,” says Grewal.

The 'people' philosophy

The series also focusses on the Tata philosophy of giving their leaders “the freedom to fail”. Xerxes Desai keeps experiencing failure in his journey to build Titan, even at one point incurring huge losses for the Tatas.

“It is something I took from the Tata philosophy. They actually don't give laddus when you fail but they celebrate failure. They value that you tried and want you to try harder, and that is what they actually believe in. It’s not something which is great cinema because it's fiction, it's good cinema because I took it from them,” says Grewal.

In the end, the Titan story could not have been made for the big screen. “This story was perfect for OTT,” asserts Grewal. “OTT gives you lot more time and allows you to tell different stories like the Titan one. In a two-hour movie, you could never get the same effect because you cannot live with those characters. It will go too quick for the telling. In cinema, the fear of Friday too dictates many things because there's a lot of money involved.”

For viewers, they get to savour the grit and courage of determined Indians, who refuse to let go of their dreams despite many stumbling blocks. The biggest of them all being that Indians lack the skill to make world-class watches!