'I am always on trial'

Nonika Singh

She laughs easily, and he talks with equal fluidity and ease. Together, director-producer Suparn Varma of The Family Man fame and actor Sheeba Chaddha are out to create magic in the upcoming series The Trial: Pyaar Kaanoon Dhokha.

In an exclusive zoom interview as both the director and actor share their thoughts about the Disney Hotstar web series starring Kajol in the lead, they are delightful insightful and a perfect example of how actor and director feed off each other.

“Sheeba,” gushes Suparn, “is a director’s delight more than a director’s actor.” For someone who has worked with one of India’s finest actors, Manoj Bajpayee, in The Family Man and lately in Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai, which Suparn produced, he admits, “Actors bring their soul into a role. Only actors make a great script come alive. I just placed the camera.” Sheeba vouches for his non-interfering approach and says, “His interventions are very subtle. I felt completely unfettered.”

‘To let actors be’ is a lesson he learnt early in life when he was making his debut film with actor Kay Kay Menon. As he narrated the scene to him for over 30 minutes with backstory and complete backgrounders, Menon interrupted him, ‘Just tell me what my scene is’. And Suparn realised that these are great actors who know exactly what they have to do.

Of course, to ensure they give their best, casting is very important for him. “If I have a powerful actor like Sheeba, I have to ensure that other actors, even those who have to just utter one dialogue, are good enough.”

While creating a part for someone like Sheeba, who has been there and done it all, was it difficult to conceive a suitable part for her? Well, in Trial… Sheeba once again plays to her strengths as a tough-as-nails corporate woman who is soft and vulnerable from the inside. But the real unravelling of her character, especially the dynamics of her relationship with Noyonika Sengupta, played by Kajol, will truly unfold in the next season. Like the original, The Good Wife, on which Trial… is based, there will be many seasons.

For someone who is associated with the original work, what makes Suparn opt for an adaptation? He says, In an adaptation, you just take the kernel of the idea and run with it. Since in India there is no jury system, the legal drama is all ours, and all the cases are contemporary. Besides, let’s take Kajol’s character. We know that in India, even if an atrocity happens to a woman, she is censured. Indian women are more victimised than any other, and that changes her reaction and trajectory. Besides, an Indian mother is unlike an American one. So, all this had to be ingenious and rooted in our ethos. It’s a very Indian show.”

Is adapting foreign series to an Indian milieu the toughest part of working on an adaptation? Suparn reasons, “Nothing in life is easy. Making a show itself is tough.” Yes, comparisons with the original are only expected, even though The Good Wife’s last season dropped somewhere in 2015. But the confident director says, “I am always on trial. That is the nature of my job; that is what I signed up for.”

Indeed, in his uphill journey, nothing has opened doors like The Family Man, which he co-directed with the famous Raj and DK duo. “I had been knocking for a long time. When the door opened, I put my foot and body in it, put a doorstopper on it, and intended to keep the door open for a long time.”

We wonder if different OTT platforms demand different types of content. He agrees, “Yes, you could say that, though what will go where depends upon the budget and storyline, and at times a particular platform is looking for specific content.”

Besides, he chuckles, “Movies are more like one-night stands, while OTT is a long-term relationship.” From Trial, which premieres on July 14, you can expect “lots of complex emotions and issues that you see around but have not addressed.”