Dream team

At a Bollywood awards function in 2015, bouncers had a tough time keeping out gatecrashers. Amid the chaos, a lanky man stood calmly with his wife and a couple of friends. Unassuming, but carrying VVIP passes, Nitesh Tiwari, whose film Bhootnath Returns was nominated in various categories, waited patiently with wife, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, before a member from the award show recognised them and escorted them to their seats.

But things have changed now, thanks to Dangal. “I am approached more often for a selfie,” says Nitesh, with a laugh. A few weeks ago, the couple with their six-year-old twins—a boy and a girl—were having dinner at a restaurant in South Bombay. “Someone recognised Nitesh as the director of Dangal and came for a selfie. Soon, we were surrounded by people,” says Ashwiny. When the crowd realised she was his wife, they Googled her. “Mobile phones have made it so easy. They realised that I have directed Nil Battey Sannata and then they wanted a joint selfie.”

I met the couple at a sweetshop in Juhu a few days before the release of Bareilly Ki Barfi, directed by Ashwiny and written by Nitesh and Shreyas Jain. The film has become one of this year’s sleeper hits. After completing one interview session inside the shop, Ashwiny got up, saying the air-conditioning was making her claustrophobic. I had earlier bumped into Nitesh at a paan shop in the neighbourhood; originally from Uttar Pradesh, he relishes his pan. And, having an advertising background, they both enjoy a cutting chai from the tapri. So, we went to a tapri next, led by Ashwiny. “We are too used to this ritual,” she says, while sipping the freshly made tea. Even on regular days when they get bored with the “ghar ka chai”, they go to a tapri outside their house in Chembur.

Before Bareilly Ki Barfi, neither of them had attempted a love story. If Nitesh began his film journey with a children’s film, Chillar Party, Ashwiny’s debut, Nil Battey Sannata, was about mother-daughter relationship. But, as they talked about their own relationship, it seemed it could be made into a sweet, simple love story. Almost 13 years ago, they met at Ghetto, a pub frequented by corporates and advertising professionals. She was with Leo Burnett and he with Lowe Lintas.

Screening hits: A still from Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal.

Was it love at first sight? Nitesh shrugged, “No. I don’t think so.” Ashwiny admitted, “For me, it was.” She woke up the next morning and told her mom that there was a man who wore striped shirts, jeans and nerdy glasses, and that’s whom she was going to marry. “I was a little known in the industry,” he quips. But she still doesn’t know why she spoke about marrying him so soon. “Earlier that day [before they met], a common friend had spoken a lot about Nitesh as someone who writes really well,” she says. Maybe that stuck with her. “Or, maybe it is a karmic connection.” Her mother was frightened that her south Indian daughter would be marrying a boy from Uttar Pradesh. “She was relieved only after knowing that he studied at IIT Bombay.”

Ashwiny has always been spontaneous, unlike Nitesh, who ponders the minutest things. “Even on film sets, I am more impulsive,” says Ashwiny. Adds Nitesh: “I have to be 100 per cent sure before taking a decision. I will take a lot of time to decide what to do next, whom to cast in my film. I did a nine-month pre-production for Dangal, and you took only three-four months for Bareilly Ki Barfi. That says a lot, even though Dangal required that.”

They call their relationship “anti-conventional”. Their gifts to each other, very few in all these years, include a digital camera and a study table. He never proposed to her; she was ready to take a home loan even before they decided to get married. He takes care of the kids; she went on a solo trip to Puducherry just three months after her delivery. And they both love the way they are.

The fame, attention and money haven’t affected them. “Nothing bothers us too much,” says Ashwiny. “We both have worked in the corporate world and come from middle-class background. Working in advertising taught us a lot. We know our roots. It is the glamour part that is new. But before getting into mainstream films, we knew that the fame and glamour part of it should only be restricted to the sets. Once you are home, life should be as normal as it has been. [Fame] aaj hai kal nahi hai [is there today, gone tomorrow].” Nitesh, she adds, continues to drop the twins to the bus stop every day as he did before Dangal. “Just that I give more selfies while we wait for the bus,” he says. The children, however, took a little time to adjust to the attention. “They wondered why so many people were coming for selfies. I told them because they have liked a film I made.”

A still from Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s Bareilly Ki Barfi.

They work together and enjoy that, too. Nil Battey Sannata was just taking forward the collaboration that started much earlier when Ashwiny, following a small stint at McCann after their wedding, came back to Leo Burnett to report to Nitesh. “We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and that helps a lot. Plus, we are also aware where to draw the line, and not having ego issues helps,” says Ashwiny.

They remember the time when they were working on the promo videos of Kaun Banega Crorepati (Nitesh has been involved with it for the last five seasons including the ongoing one). Amitabh Bachchan, the host of the quiz show, was amazed at Ashwiny’s dedication. She was pregnant and would still run around the sets. “One day he said, ‘deviji, aap baith jaiye [madam, please sit]. You will pop out any time.’ But I was still working, only to have labour [pains] the next day,” she recalls.

Now, both of them are working in the advertising sector independently while also doing films, but for the first film projects, they didn’t quit their agencies. Nitesh took a five-month break during Chillar Party. “The contribution of our associates has been great,” he says. He had even thought of making a full foray into films. “Initially, it was unsettling to think that you won’t be getting the monthly salary,” he recalls. Not that it would have been an issue for Ashwiny. “Our contribution to the monthly budget is the same,” she says. “It is not that I am going to think that ‘oh, he is a man, he should do everything.’” Nitesh says he is happy writing and being at home, “she can go and make all the films and earn the money.”

But together, they think, they make a terrific team and thus want to take it forward with a production house. “Eventually, we will, because there are so many ideas that keep floating in our minds,” says Ashwiny. Nitesh, however, wants to start a venture to help the younger talent that needs grooming. With Ashwiny around, he says the dream may materialise soon. “I may take 20 years,” he says, “but she will do it faster.”