Junglee Pictures and Abhishek Chaubey join hands for a real-life crime web series set in west UP
Junglee Pictures and the Udta Punjab director — who also co-wrote Omkara — step into the world of web series with a show, which explores a social order that allows gruesome crimes to become commonplace
Having enjoyed success in the world of cinema with back-to-back hits in Talvar, Bareilly Ki Barfi and Raazi, Junglee Pictures is now entering the exciting new world of web series with their first offering, Dus Assi, a crime thriller. The series will be directed by Abhishek Chaubey, who has earned critical acclaim with films like Udta Punjab and Ishqiya. A web series is new territory for the filmmaker, but he says what attracted him to this format was the freedom it gives creatively. He tells us, “Indian audiences have now developed a taste for streaming platforms and they are enjoying a different kind of entertainment from them. What attracts me as a filmmaker is that it gives me the opportunity to tell stories in the long format. We are restricted by a two or two-and-a-half hour length in cinema, because of which we structure our story in a certain way. Whereas in this format, I have much more time to explore characters, plots, themes, and all the narratives. It’s very interesting purely from a craft perspective for me.”
AFTER TALVAR, BAREILLY KI BARFI & RAAZI, JUNGLEE PICTURES IS NOW ENTERING THE WEB SERIES SPACE
ABHISHEK CHAUBEY
We will shoot the web series in real locations in UP: Abhishek Chaubey
But the change of medium does not mean that the director will change his tone. From Ishqiya to Udta Punjab, his films have been earthy and rooted, set in non-metro locales, which will be a mainstay of Dus Assi, too. Abhishek elaborates, “This is a story that’s set in western UP. I have been to western UP before. I wrote Omkara, which was set there. But this is a different world from Omkara. It is more in the urban areas of western UP, in towns like Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Moradabad. It is not set in the rural areas, but it’s definitely rooted.” Abhishek adds that in order to capture the rustic essence of the region, the team is planning to shoot the series in real locations in UP. “There is no question about the fact that we have to shoot it where it is set,” he says, adding, “Very soon, we would like to go there (west UP) and check out locations to shoot there. I don’t think there is an alternative to shooting in real locations.”
Dus Assi deals with a real-life incident that took place in western UP and dabbles in crime and criminals from the state. But Abhishek is clear that the story does not aim to glamourise crime. “I have a big issue with it in the sense that glamourising criminals is something we do very often,” he says, adding, “We need to be very sensitive about it. When we talk about a crime story — the kind of crime story that this one hopes to be — we don’t want to talk about a particular crime or even a set of crimes. What we want to talk about is what is happening to our social order. What is afflicting the society so much that gruesome crimes have become so commonplace? The story needs to explore that in a very frank and honest manner and yet be gripping and riveting while doing that. It does not have to glorify and glamourise crime to be appealing.”
Indian web series, with only a few exceptions, have been set in urban India. By setting a series in the backwaters of western UP, the Dus Assi team will certainly be bucking a trend. But the director feels the audience will like this change. “There was a time when we were setting all our films in Switzerland, New York, London, and all of that. In no time, the stories changed from there to the interiors of Delhi and UP. What people really look for is a compelling story and if we manage to pull that through, we will be quite all right. It’s a story about real people, our own people, and the audience would want that,” he says.
The Udta Punjab director says that even he used to be sceptical about the future of web series in India when the trend first began, but the willingness of production houses like Junglee Pictures to produce shows on this medium shows that there is an audience for it in India. He says, “When this trend started a few years ago, I was very sceptical about it. I thought, just because web series are so big in the West, it doesn’t mean that India is going to catch on to it. But over the years, I have seen that the most reputed production companies and studios are interested in this medium. This means that there is an audience for it. Production companies are going out on a limb and producing content which is new and different. It doesn’t matter whether we like the shows or not, but one thing we have to admit is that it is not ordinary content. It’s very different from what we are seeing in films. It’s much bolder and much more frank. I think that’s great.”
Junglee Pictures and the Udta Punjab director — who also co-wrote Omkara — step into the world of web series with a show, which explores a social order that allows gruesome crimes to become commonplace
Having enjoyed success in the world of cinema with back-to-back hits in Talvar, Bareilly Ki Barfi and Raazi, Junglee Pictures is now entering the exciting new world of web series with their first offering, Dus Assi, a crime thriller. The series will be directed by Abhishek Chaubey, who has earned critical acclaim with films like Udta Punjab and Ishqiya. A web series is new territory for the filmmaker, but he says what attracted him to this format was the freedom it gives creatively. He tells us, “Indian audiences have now developed a taste for streaming platforms and they are enjoying a different kind of entertainment from them. What attracts me as a filmmaker is that it gives me the opportunity to tell stories in the long format. We are restricted by a two or two-and-a-half hour length in cinema, because of which we structure our story in a certain way. Whereas in this format, I have much more time to explore characters, plots, themes, and all the narratives. It’s very interesting purely from a craft perspective for me.”
AFTER TALVAR, BAREILLY KI BARFI & RAAZI, JUNGLEE PICTURES IS NOW ENTERING THE WEB SERIES SPACE
ABHISHEK CHAUBEY
We will shoot the web series in real locations in UP: Abhishek Chaubey
But the change of medium does not mean that the director will change his tone. From Ishqiya to Udta Punjab, his films have been earthy and rooted, set in non-metro locales, which will be a mainstay of Dus Assi, too. Abhishek elaborates, “This is a story that’s set in western UP. I have been to western UP before. I wrote Omkara, which was set there. But this is a different world from Omkara. It is more in the urban areas of western UP, in towns like Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Moradabad. It is not set in the rural areas, but it’s definitely rooted.” Abhishek adds that in order to capture the rustic essence of the region, the team is planning to shoot the series in real locations in UP. “There is no question about the fact that we have to shoot it where it is set,” he says, adding, “Very soon, we would like to go there (west UP) and check out locations to shoot there. I don’t think there is an alternative to shooting in real locations.”
Dus Assi deals with a real-life incident that took place in western UP and dabbles in crime and criminals from the state. But Abhishek is clear that the story does not aim to glamourise crime. “I have a big issue with it in the sense that glamourising criminals is something we do very often,” he says, adding, “We need to be very sensitive about it. When we talk about a crime story — the kind of crime story that this one hopes to be — we don’t want to talk about a particular crime or even a set of crimes. What we want to talk about is what is happening to our social order. What is afflicting the society so much that gruesome crimes have become so commonplace? The story needs to explore that in a very frank and honest manner and yet be gripping and riveting while doing that. It does not have to glorify and glamourise crime to be appealing.”
Indian web series, with only a few exceptions, have been set in urban India. By setting a series in the backwaters of western UP, the Dus Assi team will certainly be bucking a trend. But the director feels the audience will like this change. “There was a time when we were setting all our films in Switzerland, New York, London, and all of that. In no time, the stories changed from there to the interiors of Delhi and UP. What people really look for is a compelling story and if we manage to pull that through, we will be quite all right. It’s a story about real people, our own people, and the audience would want that,” he says.
The Udta Punjab director says that even he used to be sceptical about the future of web series in India when the trend first began, but the willingness of production houses like Junglee Pictures to produce shows on this medium shows that there is an audience for it in India. He says, “When this trend started a few years ago, I was very sceptical about it. I thought, just because web series are so big in the West, it doesn’t mean that India is going to catch on to it. But over the years, I have seen that the most reputed production companies and studios are interested in this medium. This means that there is an audience for it. Production companies are going out on a limb and producing content which is new and different. It doesn’t matter whether we like the shows or not, but one thing we have to admit is that it is not ordinary content. It’s very different from what we are seeing in films. It’s much bolder and much more frank. I think that’s great.”
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