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Real heroism comes at a devastating cost in Indian film “Costao.”
“The reality is you don’t always win the way you want to win,” director Sejal Shah tells Variety about her true-story drama premiering on ZEE5 Global. The film chronicles Goan customs officer Costao Fernandes, who made history by intercepting a massive gold smuggling operation in the 1990s only to find his life destroyed when he killed a politically-connected perpetrator in self-defense.
Star Nawazuddin Siddiqui has been one of India’s most prolific and most appreciated actors in recent years. His credits include “Manto,” “Raman Raghav,” “Gangs of Wasseypur,” “The Lunchbox,” and series including Netflix’s “Sacred Games” and Prime Video’s “McMafia.” He received an International Emmy nomination for 2020 Netflix film “Serious Men.”
“The journey of Costao is an amazing one. It’s about bravery, honesty, discipline, and suffering,” Siddiqui says. “Whenever I choose a script, I always wonder about the characteristics of the character. Costao’s traits were very interesting. At times, he is quite absurd – he has a strange sense of humor, where he can laugh at something he himself has said.”
Siddiqui describes meeting with the real-life Costao numerous times before and during filming. “I tried to portray him in a way that didn’t feel like an imitation but still captured his essence. It was very important that it didn’t look caricaturish,” he explains.
The actor found portraying Costao’s dual life particularly challenging. “When he’s on duty, he’s a different person. But at home, with his wife and children, he is someone else,” Siddiqui notes. “Costao, as a personality, has a lot of grey shades. And I like that very much. When you are depicting a real person, it shouldn’t be about showing only their good qualities.”
For Siddiqui, one of the most emotionally resonant scenes involves Costao visiting the grave of the man he killed. “There’s a scene in the graveyard where Costao says to the person who died, ‘You know that I didn’t kill you. I didn’t intend to kill you. Only you know this. I can’t prove this anywhere – not in court, not anywhere else,’” he says. “That scene was very special to me.”
Director Shah, who spent almost a year researching and developing the story with the real Costao, explains that adapting a true story came with unique challenges. “Most of the things have happened. So it was not very difficult for me to dramatize it,” she says. “But when [co-writer Bhavesh] tried to dramatize it, it was not that we stayed away from what had happened to his life.”
Shah adds that the film subverts typical biopic expectations. “In the second half it is, you know, it’s like, it’s a biopic, but it’s not that he wins. It’s a tragedy also, in some sense. You know that how it is not easy for everybody to be a hero,” she explains.
Shah’s journey from journalism to directing was unexpected. After eight years as a journalist with The Week, she studied filmmaking at the New York Film Academy and directed documentaries before transitioning to producing with her company Bombay Fables, alongside writer Bhavesh Mandalia. The company found success with Netflix’s “Serious Men” starring Siddiqui and directed by Sudhir Mishra.
“I had no intention of making any films. I was happy because documentary for a journalist is the next thing. Instead of a pen, you’re using a camera,” Shah explains of her early career transition.
For “Costao,” Shah aimed to create an authentic representation of 1990s Goa. “It’s a very quaint world we have. The Goa in the film, which is not the typical Goa, where there are tourists and all that. This is the real Goa,” she says.
The real Costao Fernandes has already seen the film and reacted positively. “He was really very happy with the film. He was overwhelmed, and he had tears in his eyes,” Shah reveals. “That was a very important thing, because I was very scared when he was watching the film, more scared than anybody else.”
Shah hopes audiences will take away several themes from the film. “I think the takeaway would be, basically, that it’s not easy to be brave,” she says. “I think it is a story of any other person who fights for what they believe… it’s also about redemption and forgiveness.”
While Siddiqui has a global following from his work on platforms like Netflix, he hopes “Costao” will reach an even wider audience through ZEE5 Global’s international reach. “ZEE5 Global has a big reach – even in the U.S. I hope people all over the world watch the film,” he says.
Looking ahead, Siddiqui reveals he’s currently working on several projects including “Thama,” “Raat Akeli Hai Part 2” and “Section 108.”
“Costao” is produced by Bombay Fables, Bhanushali Studios and Zee Studios. It streams on ZEE5 Global from May 1.
