Sometimes, the most frightening villains are not the ones written into a script, but the ones quietly accepted by society. As debate continues around Kartavya’s antagonist, the film’s director , Pulkit, insists audiences may be looking in the wrong direction altogether.
“Talk about the story and not just one person. There is some kind of chatter about him and I don’t know why. Saurabh [Dwivedi] has precisely three scenes in the film. I have not treated him as my villain or antagonist. The father is the villain of Kartavya and in a larger sense, it is society too is, and maybe we all are too. I have spoken about honour killing and the crimes that adults use children to commit — those are my villains. Society has fallen to such a level that we call children cancer. I cast Saurabh when he was hosting a show, because of the way he talks and delivered his podcast and I wanted that in my movie. If you want to hate someone I cannot stop you.”
Saurabh Dwivedi in the show
Pulkit also addressed the online backlash against Dwivedi’s performance, saying the criticism may have stemmed from the latter’s recent controversy involving actor Rajpal Yadav. “When I was making Kartavya he was doing very well at Lallantop and I am grateful that at one call he agreed to do my film. He is not an actor and I have cast him knowing that.”
The filmmaker further opened up about casting Saif Ali Khan in the rooted small-town role despite the actor’s polished public image. “Saif has two sides to him — one is quite urban, educated and cool and the other is his desi, rustic one,” he said, adding that the actor immersed himself deeply in the dialect, look, and emotional world of Kartavya.
Pulkit maintained that Kartavya was never conceived as a thriller, but as “a human drama about a man with his conscience in the correct place.”
Saif Ali Khan in ‘Kartavya’
What’s Next For Pulkit?
After ‘Kartavya’, Pulkit has already moved on to his next directorial, ‘Sundar Poonam’. The film stars Sanya Malhotra and Aditya Rawal, with the director currently shooting for the project
