‘Paatal Lok’ creator Sudip Sharma on producers Anushka and Karnesh Sharma: Both were creatively involved

The trailer of ‘Paatal Lok’ recently dropped online and it is creating all the right buzz for its concept, characters, and intrigue factor. Sudip Sharma who is the showrunner of the show has also written a few episodes of the show with three more writers.

In a conversation with Bollywood Bubble, Sudip spoke at length about ‘Paatal Lok’, his duty as showrunner, the characters and a lot more.

Talking about how he got references of the characters, Sudip said, “There were various references for the characters. Like for the journalist character, it came out of the idea of exploring the life of journalists who are no longer the custodian of cultural agenda and they are no longer considered important in the socio-political scene. What does it mean to be a journalist like that? Same with the character of the Delhi cop as how he begins his life in a cruel city like Delhi and face violence. The other four characters came out of the division of India in the name of caste, class and religion. We tried to explore social evil through these characters.”

When we asked Sudip where does he draw the line while writing about violence and brutality, he said, “If you are showing the reality with a certain degree of responsibility, then I don’t think there should be any line that should be drawn. If you are doing work with honesty and responsibility, it is fine to show that. The violence shown on-screen might turn a few people off, but that’s the whole idea of it. It is meant to disturb.”

“There is as much reality and violent in ‘Paatal Lok’ as it was in ‘NH10’, ‘Udta Punjab’, or ‘Sonchiriya’. When we write there is no such idea in mind that it will be passed by the censor or not. We write with our own sense of judgement as a writer and a sense of responsibility as an artiste. I need not have to make any shift in writing,’ said Sudip.

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He also spoke how as a showrunner it becomes his responsibility to make sure that the story comes out right, the way it has been written. Sudip said, “It also means the responsibility of handling budgets, schedules, post-production, editing and a lot more things. Basically, as a showrunner, you become the custodian of the project and it is your job to ensure that the show comes out right. Having said that, it is a very collaborative experience.”

He was all praise for the producers-Anushka Sharma and her brother Karnesh. “Anushka’s inputs are at the top level, she loves to read and she is quite insightful with her comments and opinions on scripts and stories. Both Karnesh and Anushka were creatively involved in terms of telling stories,” said Sudip.

‘Paatal Lok’ is produced by Anushka Sharma’s Clean Slate Filmz. The web series stars Jaideep Ahlawat, Neeraj Kabi, Gul Panag, Abhishek Banerjee and Swastika Mukherjee in leading roles. It will be streaming from May 15 on Amazon Prime Video.

Also Read: Anushka Sharma’s ‘Paatal Lok’ actor Jaideep Ahlawat completes a decade in films