Three boys on an impossible ‘Mishan’

Writer-director Swaroop RSJ discusses his new Telugu film ‘Mishan Impossible’ about three boys going in search of a dreaded criminal

In 2014, three schoolboys left home from Patna in the hope of tracking down the fugitive underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim and winning a handsome reward from the government of India. The boys were traced by police in New Delhi and sent back home. At the time, aspiring filmmaker Swaroop RSJ was both amused and intrigued by the news and began writing a crime comedy thriller. The story was put on the backburner when he began working on his debut film Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya with Naveen Polishetty, but he was keen to revisit it. The Telugu film Mishan Impossible, releasing in theatres on April 1, is a fictional story inspired by the three boys.

The trailer has caught attention for its humour and pop culture references. In the film, the boys — Raghupathi, Raghava and Rajaram — call themselves RRR and indulge in banter with actor Rishab Shetty (in a cameo) and company who call themselves KGF. “When I wrote it, I did not in the wildest of my dreams think that my film would release in theatres between RRR and KGF2,” laughs Swaroop.

Swaroop set the film’s story in Vadamalapeta near Tirupati with the three boys as the protagonists and Taapsee Pannu as an investigator. “Initially I had written a male detective character but I felt it had similarities with Naveen’s character in Agent… So I rewrote it as a female character and thought Taapsee would be ideal. With the work she has done in the last few years in Hindi cinema, I was not sure if she would agree to do a 45-minute role in my film.” However, Taapsee liked the story and agreed to come on board. This is her first Telugu film three years after the Tamil-Telugu bilingual Game Over.

The toughest part of Mishan Impossible was choosing the three adolescents. Swaroop and his team auditioned nearly 400 children. “Many on-screen children speak beyond their age. Those who came for the auditions also reeled out popular film dialogues. I selected boys who still had a charming innocence,” says Swaroop.

A month of auditioning later, they chose three boys — Harsh Roshan, Bhanu Prakash and Jayateertha Molugu. Swaroop conducted a two-month workshop to ensure that the boys unlearn any filmi overtones and approach their characters afresh. 

The film went on floors after the first lockdown in 2020; shooting in a village ensured that they stayed in a bio bubble. “The real challenge was when we resumed filming after the second wave. There were reports that children could be affected. One sequence required 60 to 70 children. We saw to it that the children wore masks all the time except when in front of the camera and maintained social distance.”

Swaroop remembers how the kids would log in for online classes from 8 am to 9.30 am, after which the shooting would begin.