Writer-Director Anubhuti Kashyap takes you through the journey in making the hilarious medical drama Doctor G, its real-life inspirations and well-layered characters, in conversation with Dr.Priyaankaa Mathur
Doctor G is not just a medical comedy created by chance, instead, the film has been the result of keen observation, while it is inspired by a real-life character.
Director Anubhuti Kashyap throws light on how the character of the protagonist Dr.Uday Gupta played by Ayushmann Khurrana was conceived, saying, “In fact, the character was inspired from a real-life character and is a result of some keen observation. The initial script was penned down by Saurabh Bharat who’s been an ex-doctor since he studied MBBS in Dentistry, but did not practice it. While he was dating a gynecologist then, Dr.Sapna who’s now his wife, she told him about this only male gynecologist in her class amongst all the females, from where he took the inspiration to write the character and the story followed. Eventually, Saurabh along with Vishal Wagh wrote a full-fledged screenplay and pitched the story to Junglee Pictures.”
What brought Anubhuti into the picture was when Junglee approached her to direct the film, since they needed a female director to do justice to the script.
So what was her first reaction to the script she tells, “In fact when I read the script I loved it and liked the world it created.The story was unique,well-detailed and medically correct and something that was never seen before. So I told junglee, that although I liked it, if I come on board I’ll change the entire script if required and they agreed.”
Talking about building on the script she tells,” I first wanted to understand the character and spent a lot of time with Saurabh and Dr.Sapna to understand the nuances of the character they referred to, how he behaved, and various situations the script referred to. Eventually, I reworked the story with Saurabh and wrote the screenplay. We brought Sumit Saxena another writer on board to write the dialogues while we revisited the screenplay alongside. We were in a hurry to bring it on the floor and the first name which came to our mind was Ayushmann Khurrana’s.”
How did Ayushmann come into the picture she tells, “Eventually the script demanded him as he suited the character. We approached Ayushmann thinking he might like it since he is known to take up unique subjects, so it could be both ways. In fact, initially, he gave us an hour for the narration, but felt so good that he canceled everything else and heard the full script.He immediately announced that he wants to do the film and eventually came on board.”
Talking about whether the layering of characters was that deliberate or the need of the script, she replied, “The Original script was just about the medical world, but I brought in many characters like the mother’s struggle and the story of the teenage girl to make it relatable to a larger set of audience as their personal journey.”
What kind of research was put to bring in the characters and detailing to understand the medical world, she said,” Dr. Sapna was our consultant for the film. During the recce, the entire crew met many doctors from the medical fraternity in various hospitals to understand how they operate, the medical do’s and don’ts, medical ethics, and other nuances of the medical professionals, which certainly helped in creating an authentic story.”
Kashyap concludes by responding to how was the response to the film from the medical fraternity, saying, “While we did screenings for the doctors, there were some male gynecologists too. They loved the film and told us that they had done all of this, performing deliveries in the corridors, in auto-rickshaws, and even on the streets. They loved the film while they remembered their residency, college campus, and MBBS days.”
