In Paatal Lok season one, policeman Hathiram Chaudhary (Jaideep Ahlawat) took a deep dive into the eponymous netherworld. In season two, as he says in the trailer, Chaudhary has become the netherworld’s “permanent resident”.
“Hathiram is no more the angsty cop who feels he hasn’t got his due in life and needs to prove himself to the world,” creator and executive producer Sudip Sharma told Screen. “This time, he is not craving for attention. Now he knows who he is and what he does best – a cop who will pursue truth till the time he can.”
Delhi-set Paatal Lok was a major hit for Amazon Prime Video in 2019 and heralded a boom of web crime shows. Season two unfolds in Nagaland as Hathiram, along with ex-colleague and now, an officer, Imran Ansari (Ishwak Singh), travel to the North-Eastern state to investigate the murder of a Naga politician in Delhi. New cast members include Tillotama Shome as an Indian Police Service officer based in Nagaland, director Nagesh Kukunoor playing a power broker making deals between Delhi and Nagaland, and Assamese filmmaker Jahnu Barua playing a politician.
Like Hathiram has become habituated to the murky waters of the netherworld, Sharma, too, has become an experienced writer-producer having made films like NH10, Udta Punjab, and Sonchiriya, and series like Netflix’s Kohrra. With the second season of Kohrra, currently being shot in Jalandhar, Punjab, Sharma is turning director. Excerpts from an interview.
Paatal Lok season one once and for all established that the system is corrupt and unsalvageable. Then why make a second season?
The system may be unsalvageable but Hathiram feels that if there is even a slight chance of positively affecting some life, or find out the heart of the mystery he has to solve, he will do it. Money is not the reason for making a second season. I would get paid more to do something new because then I wouldn’t be bound to a five-year-old contract.
At the end of season one, I realised my relationship with Hathiram is not over yet. I wanted to explore the person more. Instead of moving forward from where season one ended, Hathiram became the primary driver, taking me along on a new journey. With my previous work, I realised whatever I had to say about the world through socio-political commentary, I am done. The deepest mysteries lie within. So I am focusing inwards now for my stories. Hathiram’s conflict is also more internal now, rather than making a point to the outside world. If anything, the stakes are bigger this time. Nagaland is a new terrain. He doesn’t speak the language or understand the culture.
Why Nagaland?
I am from the North East. I was born and lived in Guwahati for twenty years. I wanted to, perhaps, rebuild that connection; return to not just the place but my childhood. I also wanted to take Hathiram to a place which would be difficult for him. Chitrakoot is not all that far from Delhi. But Nagaland is vastly different.
Why the five-year delay between two seasons?
Season one took four years to create. Naturally, another season should take as much time. Plus, Covid took away two years in between. And the shooting window in Nagaland is tight: October to March. Rest of the time it rains. We lost one winter, so we had to block everyone’s schedule and shoot it in the next winter from November 2022 to April 2023. There was also no shooting infrastructure in Nagaland, so we had to create all that from scratch.
Bollywood has tightened the purse strings post-Covid. Is there hope for creator-driven, personal projects such as yours?
They are being made less and less but they are still happening, like Vikramaditya Motwane’s Black Warrant and Nikhil Advani’s Freedom at Midnight. With my new production house, Act Three Productions, I hope to produce the kind of stories I want to tell but have creative control over them. I guess you have to sit down and wade through this until the times change.
Bollywood is throwing its weight behind sequels or bombastic action films. Will the trends change?
From my perspective, the scenario does seem bleak. But from the perspective of production houses, the situation is better than what it was two years back. Post-Covid, nothing seemed to be working. Everyone was wondering if people even want to go to theatres. That has clearly changed. Now there is an idea that certain kinds of films are working. And I feel once the big films start working, the small films will follow. The money entering the system from the big successes will trickle down to the smaller projects. Films like Munjya working as well as it did is a good sign. A Stree 2 working shows that the mass audience is not just male, but also includes women and family audiences. The trends will change, as they always do.
What I am concerned about is the fate of the mid-budget film. Even in Hollywood, such films are dying. The joy of seeing personal voices and nuanced stories in the theatre is depleting. I also feel that since we live in an age of information overdose, these tentpole so-called mass films are better at catching fleeting attention.
Noisy films where something is happening every minute, where an action scene can go on for ten minutes, and there is no danger of you missing anything if you scroll your phone for a while, are being encouraged. These films are designed for the attention economy. Studios, streamers and producers aren’t just using these terms like ‘passive viewing’ and ‘laundry viewing’ without data. They have indeed observed that audience attention span has decreased, so one has to tell stories to cater to that.
If such a situation, what can new and aspiring writers and filmmakers hope to do?
It has always been this difficult: no country for young writers. It’s a tough business to break into. We had our share of troubles when we were young. Just the obstacle course keeps changing. You just have to survive it. It’s all about bracing yourself and not letting go of your craft.
What you can do differently is, I guess, choose your stories carefully. For example, if you are trying to write a kickass noir film, maybe it’s not a good time. To do a good noir, you need a complex plot and a nuanced view of the world. Now is not the time for what. Perhaps pick comedies, relationship dramas or rom-coms. Maybe the time for a good noir will come two years later. So choose your battles carefully. If you want to do an indie, personal sort of a film, now is not the time.
My advice is: whatever the genre, don’t compromise with the stories you want to tell. If you are writing a horror comedy, make it so good that it can’t be ignored. For example, NH10 came out of a desire to write an action film with a female lead. We could have easily done a mind- numbing action film without anything to say, but we chose to do better.
Discover the Benefits of Our Subscription!
Stay informed with access to our award-winning journalism.
Avoid misinformation with trusted, accurate reporting.
Make smarter decisions with insights that matter.
Choose your subscription package