‘Can We Break Up After A Month?

‘What interested me more than the influencers was how they were surviving in Bombay?’
‘How many reels did they make per month? How much money did they need to get by?’
‘Did they get a job and then come back home and do this at night?’

In a new film Early Days, debutant filmmaker Priyankar Patra creates the world of social media influencers in Mumbai. The film narrates the story of two young lovers, Preeti and Samrat (Mansi Kaushik and Sarthak Sharma), who initially move to Mumbai to become actors, but get pulled into the obsessive world of social media, creating reels and desperate to grow their followers.

Patra’s film premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah in December, and was the only Indian film at its fifth edition.

Before directing Early Days, Patra produced Once Upon a Time in Calcutta for Aditya Vikram Sengupta (Asha Jaoar Majhe) under the banner For Films that the two established. Sengupta is one of the producers of Early Days. Patra also produced a couple of shorts before he ventured to direct his first feature.

Patra recently spoke to Aseem Chhabra about his fascination with the world of influencers and research he did before he began to write his script, and said, “For me, content creation has to be a stopgap before you become a filmmaker. How can your ambition be content creation? He wanted to create content for Instagram and YouTube, which, for me, was not a career.”

Priyankar, are you Gen Z in terms of your age?

No, I was born in 1995. That year is called the last of the millennials and the beginning of Gen Z. So I think the line has blurred with my identity and that with my two protagonists, although they are in their 20s.

Do you identify with that generation in terms of the social media influencing business?

Let me tell you how I conceived the film. When I moved to Bombay, I had plans to work in films. Three months later, my cousin also moved to Bombay. He is five years younger than me. But he wanted to be a content creator or an influencer. For me, that was shocking, even though I am pretty much part of the same generation. For me, content creation has to be a stopgap before you become a filmmaker. How can your ambition be content creation? He wanted to create content for Instagram and YouTube, which, for me, was not a career.

He was in Bombay for six months. Then, he went back to Kolkata. I kept wondering if I had failed as an older cousin to understand what he wanted to do. So I asked him why did you go back, do you not want to work in films? I realised I was becoming very judgmental, the same way the previous generation was judgmental.

I started chatting with him to understand him. I was also surrounded by many people similar to my age, who were influencing or creating content creation. I asked questions like how much were they paying for rent, and how much were they spending on things?

I had a friend, and it was very interesting to see that her living room was done up so well, as compared to the bedroom or the kitchen. I understood the living room was sponsored by a brand.

How did you meet your two protagonists?

I was friends with Mansi, who plays Preeti. We were in Northwest University in Illinois where I studied master’s in screenwriting. When I came back, Manasi was also in Bombay. She was making reels with her boyfriend Sarthak. The two play the lovers in Early Days.

Oh, they are in a relationship in real life as well.

Yes. One day, I jokingly asked them, ‘You guys are doing this? What if one of you wants to do it professionally, and the other wants to do it as a hobby?

I don’t think both of them wanted to do it professionally since they had moved to Bombay to be actors. But I think that conversation was the fuel for the script.

What interested me more than the influencers was how were they surviving in Bombay? How many reels did they make per month? How much money did they need to get by? Did they get a job and then come back home and do this at night?

People, who dream of becoming actors, may have a day job and then acting is a passion for them. But what about influencers? A lot of what influencers have a filmmaking aspect involved, especially editing reels.

I felt sympathetic towards very early-stage influencers. Once they are established, it’s a different story. But when they are starting out, it’s hard.

It is really disturbing how Preeti becomes so obsessed with social media and reels.

I have seen that in my friends. When they get one brand, they are very confident that another brand will come, if another reel gets a certain number of views. It’s all about chasing views.But it’s also something that I have seen in people across professions. Something about that aspect of Preeti is very similar to me. When I want something, I will put everything into it. People may say I am being a little unrealistic about my expectations. There is one aspect of Samrat that is close to me. I am constantly thinking of how I am going to pay my next month’s rent.

They are both actors. Have they done some work before?

They are from Delhi. This is their debut film although both have worked in short films before. They have worked extensively in theatre.

A large part of the film is set in an apartment and you were there with the camera on their faces all the time.

It was my apartment. I shot there for logical reasons. When I had first started making the film, it started with four people — my flat mate, who is the producer and the editor, the two actors and one handy-cam. I also like closeup shots. Closeups bring out the real emotions.

I am fascinated with white walls in modern Bombay flats. They are so bland, small, cramped and there’s no space to move. But people somehow coexist there, and I was living there.

I love the way you wrote the script in your three acts — from the rawness, the love as blossoming, to Preeti’s obsession developing, and then as things start to fall apart. The final sequence as they are fighting on the road with the traffic around them is so well shot and edited. And when the issue of breaking up comes up Preeti says a funny line: ‘What would we say to our followers?’

That is based on a conversation I heard between a real-life influencing couple. ‘Okay, we can break up. But can we break up after a month? Because I can’t tell my followers I have broken up. And it’s my birthday month.’

I wanted to show that if the profession becomes your relationship, if you break up, then does the profession also go away?

When I was researching, I was constantly on Instagram looking at other influencers who had gone public with their breakups. When did they disclose it to the followers? I was curious to see what people were writing in the comments.

Shooting that scene on the road with Mumbai traffic around you must have been a challenge.

Majority of the film is shot indoors. It was a safe space. Whatever romantic moments or the initial fights they had were in that safe space. But I wanted that third act to be outdoors. Everyone is there to watch. If somebody wants to interfere, that’s there. That’s how we shot the scene in the middle of the road. There were people who were looking, passing by, but they didn’t interrupt.

Aditya Vikram Sengupta is one of your producers. What was his contribution?

He was aware of the project and was there when the script was being written. He was there when the rehearsals were happening. But when we started shooting, I did not tell anyone because I was very scared.

Was it a confidence issue?

Oh yes, there was a severe lack of self-confidence. It was around the time of the 2024 edition of the CineVesture festival in Chandigarh. I had shot some of the outdoors scenes for two days. We just went around Bombay and shoot the first 15 minutes of the film. But I lacked the confidence to direct a feature film.

That’s when I told Aditya that I had already shot for two days. His reaction was, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ After that, he got completely involved.

It is quite clear you can direct a film.

We were taking a very independent film route. But then my Singaporean co-producer, Hazelnut Media, came on board at the post-production stage. After that, it has been very structured, with a lot of studios involved.

Are you exploring other festivals after the Red Sea?

I want to take it to some American film festivals because my primary inspiration is from the American indie filmmaking of the 1990s; films by Richard Linktaler, Steven Soderbergh, Joe Swanberg and the Safdie Brothers.