Herald
Café: How did you go about executing the mammoth task of writing the life story
of someone like Mary Kom? What were the challenges?
Saiwyn
Quadras: For me, all the elements were right there in front of me. I just had to
put them together in the right manner. There were so many things that we had to
leave out of the film because Manipur as a state is very volatile. If we had
reflected too much of it, it could have caused Mary problems in her state. Then
we decided to concentrate on Mary’s personal journey with little elements of
the reality of Manipur but not delving too much into it because then the story
would have become darker. The challenge was to convey the truth and at the same
time make it entertaining to make it film-worthy. We did not want to make a
documentary film. First of all it was the harsh realities of the place that she
was born and brought up in. Then it was the language – they are not very
comfortable speaking in Hindi. I, along with my dialogue-writers, went to
Manipur, met Mary and her husband Onler, imbibed the environment that they live
in. I had to observe what Mary is like as a person. How she likes to put on
make-up and look glamourous most times but when she steps into the ring, she
becomes a tigress who doesn’t care where her hair is.
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HC: What
was the most difficult part for you while writing the script?
SQ: While
learning about Mary, I had to also learn about Onler and how he supports his
wife. He is always sitting behind her. When you ask Mary a question, maybe she
processes English or Hindi a little slower than Manipuri but Onler is fluent in
both Hindi and English. When Mary is stuck, he just aids her with the word that
she is searching for. Their love story is pretty unconventional. A man telling
his wife to follow her dreams and taking charge of the home and kids – a man
with that large a heart is hard to come by. Getting that strength out and
keeping it in the confines of the character, was the hardest part but that is
exactly what people are loving about the film. For me, ‘Mary Kom’ is not a
boxing story, it is a love story.
HC: On a
scale of one to ten, how close is the script of the film to reality?
SQ: A good
seven. Many of the things in the film that the audience might have thought are not
factual, actually are. For example, the scene where she shaves her head off in
the movie, Mary actually did that.
HC: Before
the release of the film, there were certain views on how it was unfair to cast
a non-north eastern girl to play the character of Mary Kom. Did you have a say
in the casting process?
SQ: The
writers are never involved in casting because the producer has the larger
picture. At the end of the day, there is big money that is pumped in and it
needs to be recovered. A north-eastern actress would have been great. But right
now, if you look at Priyanka Chopra’s performance, all that thought goes out of
the window. The honest intention of making the film was to get her story out
there. Priyanka is a more recognised and universal face. For the whole country
to go and unanimously watch the film and know about Mary Kom the person, it
would have been only possible with a mainstream actress like Priyanka.
