#KetchupTalks: “Brad Pitt was, at that point in my life, the most effortlessly cool person I’d ever met.” - Adi Shankar

In a candid conversation with us, filmmaker Adi Shankar talks about his hit Netflix series Devil May Cry and working with the who's who of Hollywood!

Born in Kolkata and raised across multiple countries before eventually settling in the United States, Adi Shankar grew up in a childhood that trained him to see the world from the outside in. That early exposure to shifting cultures and perspectives would later become the foundation of his storytelling voice and an independent point of view. Shankar first reshaped the landscape of Western adult animation with Castlevania, a series he knew from the outset would leave a mark. With Netflix’s Devil May Cry, he has continued that evolution, by boldly reinventing the material as his own operatic vision.

Season one became a global hit, ranking highly in India and resonating worldwide as well! Over the years, Shankar’s journey through Hollywood has placed him alongside some of the industry’s most formidable names. From witnessing Ryan Reynolds meticulously engineer his comeback with discipline and brand precision to absorbing Brad Pitt’s career-shaping wisdom, Shankar’s philosophy has been forged through observation as much as ambition. With Devil May Cry Season Two, he promises exactly that - a much darker, grander and operatic scale. 

Also Read: #KetchupTalks: "The exploration of broken people within broken systems is endlessly fascinating to me"- Sudip Sharma

Here’s how the conversation went!

You were born in Kolkata and grew up across multiple countries before moving to the U.S. How did that constant movement shape the way you tell stories today? 

Moving a lot allowed me to be able to deeply see outside of my perspective from a young age. This may be an innate gift of mine or something that came from the ever evolving and radically changing world around me.

How does it feel working with big stars like Brad Pitt, Liam Neeson, and Ryan Reynolds? What was your takeaway with each one of them? 

Working with stars at that level is a masterclass in how people carry themselves. With Ryan Reynolds, I worked with him in 2013 when he was in a more transitional moment in his career, and what stayed with me was how deliberately he engineered his comeback. Ryan’s success wasn’t luck. It was discipline and a surgical understanding of brand and audience. Ryan also sees very deeply. We acted together in the film I produced called The Voices, and my first scene EVER on a movie set as an actor was opposite him. At the time, I felt like he expected me to be terrible, though, in hindsight, that was probably my own insecurity talking. Months later, he sent me a really thoughtful email saying he was blown away by my performance and that he hoped I’d keep acting. That meant a lot to me. It also told me two things: first, he’s incredibly kind and second, he’s incredibly perceptive. 

Brad Pitt was, at that point in my life, the most effortlessly cool person I’d ever met. I was in my early 20s on set and he was playing a very cool character, so he had that in-character gravity. I’ll never forget him asking me one night, “What’s next?” I told him about this hit book I was developing, commercially irresistible, but artistically hollow and he took a long drag of his cigarette, looked me dead in the eye, and said, “Sounds like a good bet.” His use of the word “bet” haunted me, so I ended up dropping the project. 

Today I’m hyper-aware of what I say when younger artists tell me about their work, because I know how much weight a single line can carry. And being with Brad at such a young age on a film like ‘Killing Them Softly,’ a serious, artistically respected movie, made that moment land. It clarified something for me: I didn’t want to be on the side of pure commerce.

With Devil May Cry, how did you balance honoring original fans while also welcoming audiences who had not known about the game? 

I approached it as a reinvention: Adi Shankar’s Devil May Cry. My job wasn’t to chase nostalgia, it was to deliver a show with its own point of view. I had to elevate Devil May Cry into something that could play as a ratings juggernaut on Netflix.

Devil May Cry Season 1 ranked highly in India and performed globally. What did that response mean to you personally, especially as an Indian-born creator? 

India showing up for Devil May Cry hit me harder than I expected. It felt like home recognizing my voice. I’ve spent years doing the work from across the world, and I didn’t realize how much I needed that recognition from India until it happened. Seeing India show up for Devil May Cry felt like a door opening, like my home country saying, “Yeah, we see you.”

How does Season 2 evolve creatively darker themes, bigger emotion or deeper character exploration? 

Season 2 is fundamentally a different show. It levels up in every single way. It’s operatic. The closest comparison I can give is the leap from Batman Begins to The Dark Knight. It’s orders of magnitude better than Season 1.

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What are some liberties and pressures that come with creating for a global platform like Netflix? 

The biggest pressure is that you’re not making for a market, you’re making for the world. The liberty is reach. The pressure is reach. If you earn trust, you get room to swing.

As someone who built a career in Hollywood without fitting a traditional mold, what advice would you give creators from India or other non-Western countries trying to break in? 

Wear lots of face paint, swear a lot in interviews, and call yourself a generational talent often and with a lot of intensity!

What stories from South East Asia would you love to represent on-screen? 

I would argue that Devil May Cry has the DNA of a story from South East Asia.

When you look at your journey from Kolkata to Netflix global premieres, what part of the story still feels surreal to you? 

I hyper-focused on my career with an obsessive, single-minded intensity from the moment I stepped out of college at 22. I had a few extremely lucky early breaks that got me into the business at a high level unusually early. Now, at 41, it feels like I have a body of work that’s without peer for someone my age, anywhere in the world, but I can also look back at the sacrifices it took to get here and see that I’m behind in a few areas of my life. I’ve been actively correcting that.

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What can we as audiences expect from you next? What are you excited to produce in the future? 

I have a video game in production! I intend to start a family very soon; that will be an epic reality shifting project.

Devil May Cry season 2 will be out this May on Netflix!

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