Director Abhinay Deo has an interesting story on how he ended up directing a gender-flipped version of the Russell Crow starrer The Next Three Day. “I got a call one day from Bhushan (Kumar, T Series) who offered me this film and I found it particularly interesting when we thought of reversing the roles . I got excited with the prospect of how similar the narrative felt to the age old Savitri Satyavan story.This literally was the starting point for me to approach this film.The gender flip was a deliberate move to make the film relatable to the Indian audience by adding the Savitri angle and the angle of a simple housewife who for love plans the impossible .Rarely do we get to make films so deeprooted in the Indian ethos and yet presented in a modern and contemporary narrative .SAVI is just one such film.SAVI is the story of a simple unassuming woman wanting to lead a straightforward life getting subjected to injustice and forced to take a very big step in her upturned life for the sake of her love her family…a woman pushed to her limits who finds her inner strength to do the impossible .Savi is a layered cake with emotions as the base and edge of the seat thrill as the icing.”
Savi cleverly merges Indian mythology into the thriller format.And Abhinay is not denying it. “To be honest the story of Savitri is story of love and the strength it possesses .To my mind that was the only angle from the mythology that we stuck to .Besides that it’s a story of an underdog ..the story of a simple unassuming woman who discovers her inner strength when she is pushed to her wit’s end to save a loved one .When I finished the writing I wanted the character to have vulnerability, innocence in the eyes and no baggage … all the features that Divyaa has intrinsically.After the workshops and the reading sessions with her it was evident she had the hunger and will surely pull it off with flying colours.”
Anil Kapoor has an interesting supporting role. “I kept Anil Kapoor in mind when I decided on this particular role .It just got further embellished by his superb performance.Anil and I go back a long way to the series 24 and we really enjoy working together, so it was a pleasure to have him play such a flamboyant and interesting part .
Abhinay is very excited about his next venture. “Brown is my series based in the crime world of Kolkata starring Karisma Kapoor and Surya Sharma . My series unlike other is a case study on people and the greys they possess within.It’s in final stages of post-production currently. Surya is fabulous. Surya was signed for Brown because he has a very intense side to him which I felt is untapped. Brown literally has character studies .It’s a story of broken people living in a broken society, having crime as the theme.”