With her upcoming release Neeyat, Vidya Balan is returning to the theatres after almost four years. The film, directed by Anu Menon, is a murder mystery with Vidya playing the detective. The film’s trailer gave glimpse of an ensemble, a locked room mystery, and an exotic Scottish setting. This immediately led to people comparing the film with Knives Out. In an exclusive chat with DNA, Vidya and Anu addressed these comparisons and maintained that their film stands out.
When asked about the comparisons online, Vidya laughed and said, “I think it’s a compliment. But I have to tell you, I dont’t read the comments so I don’t know.” The actress then added, “Having said that it’s a very successful film so I am happy with the comparison given that we have only so far released the trailer. But if I have to really address the elephant in the room: if you pick five films from this genre, you will find many similarities between any two.”
However, the actress added that the similarity extends only to the genre and nothing more. “There are tropes that this genre employs and therefore there will be similarities and it will look familiar. But only when you watch the film will you know how it’s set apart from everything that has come before it,” she said.
Anu Menon, the film’s director added that it is an original story and added, “How do you address these comments. It’s not like you can just copy Knives Out, right? But the fact is that it is a genre of locked room murder mystery. That’s like Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and so many more. But that is the setting. The difference is the story: what you are exploring through that. Every spy story is not James Bond. Every film that has men jumping off buildings is not Mission Impossible. I just feel that this genre is not over exposed in this country, people immediately go to Knives Out.”
Neeyat also features an ensemble cast including Ram Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Dipannita Sharma, Shashank Arora, Shahana Goswami, Neeraj Kabi, Amrita Puri, Danesh Razvi, Nikki Aneja Walia, and Prajakta Koli. The film releases in theatres on July 7.
