Ashwini Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari focused on keeping Break Point real
For directors Ashwini Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari it was crucial to win the trust of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi before they embarked on “Break Point” which is streaming on Zee5
In an interview with a TV channel, tennis ace Leander Paes revealed that people have wanted to know the story of Paes and Bhupathi’s successful partnership for several years, the duo agreed to the Zee5 project “Break Point” a seven-episode docuseries helmed by Ashwini Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari. They could trust in the team and the vision of storytellers like Ashwini and Nitesh. And why not! There was no reason to doubt a solid project that was led by visionaries with such a venerable track record.
Credit: @niteshtiwari
Ashwini said that the story is sensitive and it took a little while for Paes and Bhupathi to trust them but eventually the director duo won their trust and depicted the tale of the tennis champions’ rise and split. Not just interviews with Paes and Bhupathi, the series also features Sania Mirza and men’s doubles teams such as Bob Bryan-Mike Bryan and Todd Woodbridge-Mark Woodforde.
(Break Point starts streaming on Zee5 on October 1)
The husband-wife duo of Ashwini and Nitesh has many successful films to their credit but this is the first time the pair have directed an episodic series.
In an interview with Scroll, Nitesh said, “It was best to tell it in an episodic format, instead of a two-hour film, as there’s so much ground to cover. We wouldn’t be able to do justice to the story with actors. Everyone saw them lift the cup at Wimbledon and Roland Garros [French Open, 1999], but nobody knows what happened between sets.”
In the interview to Zoom TV, Ashwini had remarked, “I do feel that it’s important to be very mindful about the kind of people that we are talking to because they are legends and it is important that we respect that they are willing to tell us their stories with truth and honesty because they believe us, they trust us that we will tell their stories with utmost honesty. So being mindful about them, being mindful that we are telling their stories was of utmost importance for us and we didn’t wanna mince any of the conversations which they have had with us and we wanted to show it as is, keeping in mind that we still had to weave and emotional tale of trials and triumphs between them.”
Ashwini and Nitesh have delivered several hit sports films. They are interested in sports. Nitesh had recently said that it was Boris Becker’s rise that attracted him towards tennis. Ashwini loves Roger Federer and the couple went to Wimbledon to watch a Federer match in 2018.