'Andaman' writer Anand Raaj on being inspired by German icon Werner Herzog

Actor-writer Anand Raaj has talked about the challenges of writing the OTT movie 'Andaman' and how iconic German filmmaker Werner Herzog inspired him while making the film.

Sharing about the writing process, he says: "During the lockdown period I got to know about this German filmmaker Werner Herzog. I read his books, saw some videos and also enrolled for masterclass. From him I've learnt soo much. I learnt that we should not wait for someone to give us the approval to go ahead and make a film and if things were not happening then we should ourselves go ahead and make a film."

He adds: "I was extremely shocked that Werner Herzog used to write his screenplay and scripts in just 10 days and I thought how is this possible. Then I learnt so much about him. So I absolutely got determined to write a film in 15 days and I'm going to make this film. Though I didn't succeed in making it in 15 days but I completed the writing in 20 days."

"And this was incredibly surprising for me as I used to take 6 to 7 months and this one I completed in 20 days. I can also go ahead and say this film was written by me and directed by Smita Singh but this film was spiritually created by Herzog. Writer Premchand's book 'Idgah' has also changed my life."

Anand believes in depiction of the story which focuses on every character. He says: I'm not a trained writer hence I'm unaware of the tricks and tools of writing. So when I write I humanise every character like it's an actual person and not fiction. So I keep on questioning that person like what is going on in his mind, what is he going to do, what is he feeling, what will he do next so this is the way I write."

Helmed by director Smita Singh, the film also stars Sanjay Mishra, Rajesh Tailang and Anamica Kadamb.