The idea for Mastram came many years ago when I was in school. In the 1990s, every home did not have a TV set. There was no Internet. We had just a few ways of entertaining ourselves. Also, that was the age when we were all curious about sex. That's how I started reading Mastram. Reading the books, I often wondered, what does this man tell his family? Many years later, when Gangs of Wasseypur was in post-production, I came back to this idea. After much research, however, I found nothing on the man himself. So we made a fictional account of his life. I approached Ajay Rai, the producer of the film, whom I knew since the Gangs of Wasseypur days. He liked the script. All the crew members are friends who've come aboard without any personal fee. If the film does well, they'll get paid.