Salakaar: Sunjoy Waddhwa Reveals How This Spy Thriller Breaks the James Bond Mold

In a landscape saturated with hyper-stylized spy sagas, producer Sunjoy Waddhwa's Salakaar emerges as a rare breed - an espionage thriller that cares as much about its characters' inner battles as their high-stakes missions. The Sphereorigins founder, renowned for hits like Ranneeti, reveals why this JioCinema original (premiering August 8) deliberately sidesteps James Bond tropes to spotlight the gritty emotional reality of intelligence operatives.

"What fascinated us wasn't just the missions, but the psychological toll," Waddhwa explains. Unlike 007's gadget-laden escapades, Salakaar - starring Naveen Kasturia and Mouni Roy - unfolds across two timelines (1978 and 2025) to explore how spies reconcile duty with crumbling personal lives. Director Faruk Kabir's signature "emotional action" approach ensures every fight scene serves the character's journey rather than just spectacle.

Waddhwa points to a particularly gripping subplot: "Imagine maintaining a foreign identity for years while your actual family thinks you're dead. The constant code-switching, the loneliness - that's the real spy game no one talks about." This human focus extends to the casting. Mukesh Rishi plays a veteran RAW handler, while Purnendu Bhattacharya embodies the bureaucratic tensions between field agents and desk strategists.

The production deliberately avoids glamourized locales for authentic backdrops - Karachi safehouses look lived-in, surveillance tech appears plausibly low-fi. "Real spies don't have laser watches," Waddhwa laughs. "They have migraines from sleep deprivation and the weight of countless lies."

With its August 8 release, Salakaar could redefine Indian spy narratives by proving that the most explosive tension isn't in gunfights, but in a protagonist's quiet moment of doubt before pulling the trigger. As Waddhwa puts it: "Audiences remember how a mission made them feel, not just how cool it looked."