Hunkkaar — the story of a teenaged girl, played by Saiyaara star Aneet Padda, standing strong in the face of threat, judgment and societal pressure when she accuses a powerful godman/ cult leader (played by Raghubir Yadav) of sexual misconduct — has come in for unanimous appreciation.
The six-part series, which is powered by an impressive ensemble cast and is streaming on JioHotstar, is co-created by Karan D. Kapadia and Nitya Mehra. With Hunkkaar creating waves, t2 went deep into the show with Karan S. Kapadia.
Hunkkaar has been widely appreciated. What have you taken back so far?
It has been a humbling and overwhelming experience. What is most heartwarming is that Hunkkaar has moved beyond just being a show. People have told me that it gives them hope and inspires them.
Has the praise been especially validating given the fact that you spent years trying to get this project to the screen?
Absolutely. It took its time for multiple reasons. At one point, we were also looking at taking the show international. The response has been very satisfying because the struggle we have been through to get this story out there has been gigantic. But we never stopped believing that it would come out, a fact that funnily enough resonates with the story of Hunkkaar. It is a distinct example of the lines blurring between real and reel.
Which parts of this series, whose every mood and moment is powerful in many ways, have struck a chord with most in the audience?
There are multiple bits. There is that deeply resonating panipuri scene where the girl (Meenu, played by Aneet Padda), who has accused a cult leader of sexual assault and is facing the wrath of a large section of society, is berated by her father with: “Yeh panipuri khaane ka time hain?” Also, people are reacting to her final testimony, which I knew would have the kind of impact it has had. When we were editing, every time we watched it, we would cry, and we knew that it would resonate.
The sensitivity of dealing with such a subject and taking a stand is what we have been getting a lot of praise for... for speaking truth to power at a time when our voices are being actively silenced. There has also been praise for the performances, the cinematic quality of the series, and for the craft.
Did you ever have second thoughts about taking on a contentious subject like this and speaking truth to power, as you said, in the times we live in?
We were very surgical and strategic about all of it. I have to give a lot of credit to Sameer Nair, who mentored and championed the show. Right after we narrated the story to him, he said: “Let’s do it!” He put us in a room with all his people, and said: “These are the dos and don’ts. This is where we go and this is where we don’t.” We were mindful not to tread on any religious aspect of any community. We didn’t want to hurt any sentiments... we didn’t want that to become the narrative or the conversation around the show because there is a deeper social evil that we wanted to address — rape in our country, treatment of women in our country, how we perceive survivors in our country, how they are shamed and made to live in a so-called prison created by society.
Very often, in India, one has to deal with justice delayed being justice eventually denied.
But we also wanted to say that though our administration and judiciary have their issues, they work eventually. It is not easy to govern more than a billion people. We wanted to show how our police, who don’t have as many resources as their counterparts in many other countries, go about investigating cases. And, of course, the landscape of the media in our country is extremely disturbing, given the screaming matches we get on television, which really don’t delve into the facts of what has taken place. The amount of propaganda that we have the fourth pillar of our democracy across the world succumbing to is shocking.
With Hunkkaar, we had major ideas, themes and reflective thoughts on society that we wanted to address. Critiquing blind faith is important because we inherently have bhaktism in our culture. But drawing a line, especially when someone is coming forward and saying something horrible has happened, was the lens that we were going with.
The story was spurred by a news headline. What other disturbing facts related to the theme came up during research while you were making Hunkkaar?
That would be the rampant nature of rape and other heinous crimes that we keep hearing about every day. What really troubled us was the fact that a lot of these crimes were taking place against underage children. That was the real fire that started burning within us. We were like: “What the hell is going on?!” That is where it came from and what we stayed true to throughout. It is deeply disturbing to see what is happening with women in our country and how these crimes don’t seem to be stopping at any level.
Hunkkaar is powered by a versatile ensemble cast. What did your principal actors bring to their parts that contributed richly to the story?
Aneet brought a burning fire, which exists from her generation, to speak her truth. We knew she could bring out the innocence of this part while having the courage to take on such a battle. Raghu (Raghubir Yadav, who plays Baapji) was excited but also petrified of playing this role! What he brings to this character is amazing. On set, he would be having an ice cream, and when in front of the camera, he would suddenly metamorphose into the monster he plays. Zeeshan (Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, as Bhalerao) resonated immediately with the script, especially the panipuri scene. He was like: “I have to do this show, it says things no one is talking about”. His character is an Ambedkar bhakt... if you look at it, everyone is a bhakt of some sort in this story. Bhalerao believes he is a devotee of the judiciary. Fatima (Fatima Sana Shaikh, who plays Jasleen Sion) is a bhakt of our nation. She is a nationalist, and is true to being a police officer. Arjun (Mathur, as Amitabh Sinha) brought in a certain fire as a journalist fighting the good fight.
They were all on board, straight off the bat, once they read the material. It was a matter of how much or how little, adding a little intent here, a little texture there, a little colour to each.... They got the fire and the josh and they ran with it.
The palette of the show — sepia tones, muted backdrops, shadowy, looming look and feel — mirrors the story. Can you take us through the highlights of Hunkkaar’s moodboard and the other narrative techniques used?
I am a great fan of David Fincher’s work. For me, it was very important to emulate what our protagonists were going through, to evoke a sense of dread and fear within our characters. We wanted Hunkkaar to start in darkness, because that is what the characters were feeling at that time. We gradually move from darkness to light as a metaphor for the story.
The idea was to start from a wider perspective so that you don’t take a side at that point. But as the narrative gets deeper, you come closer to the characters and you start feeling what they are feeling. We broke the fourth wall twice — once when she (Meenu) takes off her veil and finally when she is on the stand in court. At that point, I needed her to talk directly to the audience.
Every scene in Hunkkaar has a beginning, middle and end. The scene capturing her father’s (played by Rajesh Sharma) testimony ends up wide and then comes right into him. These are filmmaking tools one learns through the years. There was also a certain kind of dread that the music brought in.
Hunkkaar is a very impactful title. What made you arrive at it?
We had a couple of titles, to be honest. Hunkkaar came to me one night. By that time, we had finished shooting the series. I felt it was poignant and extremely relevant to our characters and what they go through. Hunkkaar means the internal roar of a person, and that is something that describes the plight of almost every character in this show. It is about speaking up with courage, no matter what the consequences may be.
My favourite film/ series that speaks truth to power is...
Tell t2@abp.in