The White Tiger director Ramin Bahrani on breathing new life into the underdog story

Director Ramin Bahrani could never have imagined that his latest film, The White Tiger, would be the second most-watched film on Netflix globally.

Based on Aravind Adiga's debut novel of the same name — which won him the Man Booker Prize in 2008 — The White Tiger follows the story of a low-caste Indian man named Balram (Adarsh Gourav), who pulls himself out of poverty by hustling his way into working as a driver for a wealthy couple in Delhi (Priyanka Chopra and Rajkummar Rao).

"I think it's a very universal story," Bahrani said in a new interview with CBC Radio's q. "It seems to be hitting people around the world for that reason, but I just never thought I would make a film that would hit this many people. And I'm grateful for it."

WATCH | Official trailer for The White Tiger:

As if adapting a Booker Prize-winning novel wasn't enough pressure, Bahrani was also adapting the work of a close friend; the author and director have known each other for 25 years, having met while completing their undergraduate degrees at New York's Columbia University.

In 2004, Bahrani said he received an email from Adiga with the subject line "The White Tiger," which included a few chapters from an early draft of the novel.

"I remember in that moment, just being blown away immediately by what he had written. The story was so propulsive and rich. … I've been waiting 15 years to make the film."

The White Tiger is Bahrani's seventh feature film, but the director has always been drawn to stories about the haves and have-nots.

"All of [my films] have been dealing with, for the most part, underclass, underdogs, immigrants or kind of average people," said Bahrani. 

"From Chop Shop, which was about Latino street orphans working and living in a junkyard in Queens, to 99 Homes about a family getting evicted from their home and the lengths they'll go to get it back; [these are] the themes I've been interested in for my whole career, I guess."

He explained that growing up in North Carolina to Iranian parents — and later living in a small village in Iran for three years as an adult — "attuned" him to the stories of everyday people.

"I just wondered why they couldn't be the main characters of movies because their stories seemed relevant, compelling, and filled with humour, sadness, hope and tragedy. … I always wanted to tell those stories."

The dramatic tension of The White Tiger occurs when tragedy strikes and Balram's "woke masters" — who consider themselves to be the progressive members of their corrupt family — decide to betray their humble servant, underlining the power imbalance between the employer and the employed. 

Bahrani pointed out that there's aspects of the privileged young couple that we may even recognize in ourselves.

"Even in the Western world, we have our mobile phones, [which are] some form of a directory or a Rolodex of servants that we can call upon at any moment. In the West, they're Uber drivers, they're delivery people, [or] a TaskRabbit worker that [helps] you put together your IKEA desk."

The director thinks the film's global popularity is proof that more people are looking for stories about the underdog. 

"I think it's a great moment for audiences to just see different kinds of movies and be taken into different worlds ... and then sit back and realize, 'Wow, that's kind of like my life right here in Canada.' That's a rare moment."

Written by Vivian Rashotte. Interview produced by Jane van Koeverden.