Disney+ Hotstar released the trailer of the upcoming series, The Great Indian Murder, on Tuesday. The show is an adaptation of Vikas Swarup’s murder mystery novel, Six Suspects. Richa Chadha and Pratik Gandhi will be seen essaying the roles of two investigating officers trying to solve a murder case in the series that features a host of actors.
Directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia and produced by Ajay Devgn and Priti Vinay Sinha, The Great Indian Murder will stream on the platform from February 4.
Talking about her character, DCP Sudha Bhardwaj, during a press conference, Chadha said Dhulia’s only instruction to her was to perform the role with a “lot of dignity.”
“But, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a sense of humour or there won’t be any lighter moments in her life. I built the character keeping those nuances in mind,” she added. “My character guided me in which direction to go. It is difficult for actors because you are always told to create something new. Here, I am playing an investigator, so it is all about my eyes. She has to read between the lines, understand what people are saying and what they mean. It was tough to stay understated and play a character like her in this male (dominated) world.”
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“I haven’t really got a chance to play straight-up, ‘normal’ characters. They are either abusive, extremely rural, or ganglords,” the actor said, about the characters she has essayed in her career thus far. “This is perhaps one of the most straight, upfront characters I have played.”
Chadha and Gandhi both mentioned that they were intrigued by how their characters were written into the script, despite not being a part of the book.
Gandhi called his character “extremely challenging and interesting” and said he had ample opportunities to play the different layers of the role with humour.
“Richa’s character and mine are not part of the book; they were specially written for the The Great Indian Murder. It was exciting for me because after reading the book, when I started reading the script, I was fascinated by how they took the story forward,” Gandhi said.
Swarup, who also attended the press conference, said the new characters were required to take on the roles of the “sutradhars” (narrators) in the series. He also added that the team has done a good job adapting his book without compromising on the scale of the show.
Explaining why they chose the series format for the adaptation, Dhulia, who has co-written the series alongside writers Vijay Maurya and Puneet Sharma, said the book had too many elements to be adapted into a film.
He also spoke about how Indian storytelling has changed considerably with the arrival of online streaming platforms. “I have been saying that OTT will take over films for 10 years now. The pandemic has sped up the process. I am extremely happy in this space. You get to make an OTT show the same way you make a feature film, with the same mounting. You get to work with good actors now and the new breed of actors are much more disciplined.”
“In films, you are always pushing the plot forward to an interval point… Our sense of screenplay was contrived, but OTT has purified it and given it clarity. Now, we get to tell new stories, in a new way, with new technology and better actors, and we get to show it to the world,” said Dhulia.
Adding to that, Devgn said, “The best thing about OTT is that here, scripts and storytelling are of utmost importance. What we could not do in films, we can do here on OTT. That’s the best part of it, that you can think of new ideas, different things and put it out on screen.”
The Great Indian Murder will stream in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Bengali.