‘Madhav and I both are jugaadu’
Sheetal
Crime thrillers have become binge-watchers’ favourite genre. “The more you explore it, the more you discover how vast a genre it is. There are innumerable subjects to touch upon,” says Pankaj Tripathi who plays Madhav Mishra in Criminal Justice.
Back with his highly appreciated character to fight what is deemed to be the toughest case of his career, the next chapter of the show Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors also stars stellar female cast Deepti Naval, Kirti Kulhari, Anupirya Goenka and Shilpa Shukla.
Rather than whodunit, the court-room drama focuses on ‘whydunit’, which has some social message to it. Produced by Applause Entertainment in association with BBC Studios, it is directed by Rohan Sippy and Arun Mukerjee, who delivered the first chapter, which happens to be the most successful original series on Hotstar. Also, it was the breakthrough web series of Applause, which has delivered series of successful projects thereafter such as Hostages, Scam 1992 and The Office.
On reprising the role of Madhav Mishra, Pankaj says, “There’s no hidden agenda. He is a lawyer who has been offered a tough case which no other party is ready to fight. And, he picks up the case from Season 1 itself. He is a street-smart guy who does what serves his purpose. But it will definitely take him closer to humanity.”
Ask him if he can draw a parallel between his real and reel life and he quips, “Of course. If Madhav would have been an actor, it would have been me five years ago. I couldn’t get big roles and was struggling back then; he too struggles to get big cases. Also, both of us are jugaadu and did whatever we could to survive and strive.”
Being given the freedom to experiment, Pankaj commends the creators for their faith in him. He continues, “An actor has to either work on communication or behavioural elements to prepare for a role. Madhav is the outcome of the latter.” On the other hand, Kirti Kulhari calls Anu Chandra to be the most challenging character of her career till date. She says, “When I was offered the role, I was kind of hesitant. But as an actor I thought of it as something I should be working on. I was convinced that I would not survive as Anu, yet I did. It was like ‘paani mein gaye or geele bhi ni huye’, for I was able to do the role and not be affected by her grief. With no referral points as far as the portrayal of female-criminals is concerned, I had to think about how Anu should appear on screen. She has very few dialogues and expresses through silences.”
Creating the replica of a women’s prison was another challenge, to which Arjun (director) says, “Research was tough. It is hard to get footage of the interior of a prison. The production and BBC crew explored all possibilities to obtain something that we could draw inference from.”
To create a female-centric drama, Rohan Sippy calls it a deliberate decision. “When the theme was proposed, it got the entire team excited,” says Rohan. Actress Shilpa shares her excitement, “It was a great opportunity to be involved with this cream cast.” Portraying strong and sensitive Nikhat is actress Anupriya Goenka, who believes the series is about coming together of women of diverse mindsets, finding unity in the fact that women understand women.
Releasing on Hotstar Specials on December 24
