The Invisible Coach: Nitesh Tiwari's Genius Move in Dangal's Climax

Recently, Nitesh Tiwari, director of the popular film Dangal, revealed the creative decision behind the film's last act. In an interview on Komal Nahta's Game Changers podcast, Tiwari explained how it presented the team with a unique problem: how to create suspense when the ending (i.e. Geeta Phogat wins a gold medal) was already known to the audience? The solution to this creative dilemma was to keep Aamir Khan's character, Mahavir Singh Phogat, out of the finals. The director revealed that they wrote five different ways to exclude Mahavir at the climax, and finally settled on a version that fit together with the national anthem scene. Ultimately, this created a new sense of suspense because the spectator is not stuck on whether Geeta will win, but now just maybe she will win sans her father.

 

Source: Bollywood Hungama