Writer of the Malayalam series ‘Eyes’, Anjana Nayar, on how she came to create it

Eyes, the Malayalam web series streaming on SonyLIV, would resonate with most women a tad more than we would like. Directed by Manu Ashokan, the series is about a task force that works to anticipate and prevent stalker crimes. Given the number of stalker crimes, it sounds Utopian: a software that can track and predict a potential attack on a woman by an obsessed man. “AI was not where it is now when we developed the script four years ago. At the time it was Utopian, but not today when it seems doable,” says Anjana Nayar, who wrote the story. 

The script is by one of Malayalam cinema’s successful scenarist duo, Bobby-Sanjay. Anjana is Sanjay’s wife. An LLM degree holder, she confesses to have an academic interest in law, which she has pursued for a few months. She worked in a senior position at an FM radio station and has also been a freelance writer. 

Though she has written short stories before and won prizes at varsity-level competitions, this is her first time writing for television or films, for that matter. She is confident about the direction she is headed, vis-à-vis her writing, thanks to the response to Eyes. 

Eyes moves away from the conventional thriller format, usually built around a single crime, and instead is more episodic. There is no attempt at romanticising stalking; it is shown for what it is — insidious, unpleasant and dangerous. This could be the first time that the subject has been addressed this way. 

Over the years, she pitched ideas to Sanjay, none of which he approved. But when it came time to pitch to SonyLIV, Sanjay asked her if she had any ideas. “When I suggested this idea to him, he told me it shouldn’t end up looking like a documentary because this is a thriller series. He suggested I make it interesting because it ran the risk of becoming a case study-based documentary.” 

Given the subject, that line is thin, but she stuck to the brief: she kept the narrative engaging despite the risk of getting preachy. Rather than on one crime, the series pivots to the solution; in this case, the software Eyes, which monitors the stalkers. 

Leading with women

An interesting aspect is that the series has women in lead roles, which she says was deliberate. “It was a very conscious choice. There are so many workplaces where women lead in a very organic manner simply because they are the best qualified for the job. But in media portrayal, we often choose a male lead as a default option. We wanted to show a very natural team formation that happens to have women in key positions but without sermonising. We were also very particular about showing the team dynamic as starting with professional respect that gradually develops into a strong interpersonal bond.”

Interestingly, the lead characters are women, aided by men who are supportive of them in a series populated by problematic men. “Isn’t that how it is? There are all types of men, and I wanted to show that.” 

The inspiration came from a news report she came across about an online friendship gone wrong in which “the girl was killed, the boy died by suicide… I was struck by the pointless loss of two young lives. It later came out that, despite the girl’s family complaining about it, nothing was done. In fact, the girl was blamed.” Although the stories are fictional, some elements have been borrowed from actual cases.

Since one of the scenarists is in-house, she could run the story by Sanjay for input: “Because I was working with Sanjay, I knew what I was dealing with. I have seen him write; he is a perfectionist and is very blunt when he doesn’t like something. He is a very hard taskmaster!”

Getting feedback from someone who has been writing for as long as he has helped her better her work.  Creative inputs from the couple’s daughters, aged 17 and 13, made it a family project. “In fact, the suggestion that Tina (Kani Kusruti) could be pregnant came from my elder daughter.”

Now that Eyes is doing well, is she ready to strike out on her own? “Not yet. I haven’t got the confidence for that!” she says as she signs off. 

Eyes is streaming on SonyLIV