Indian Directors Zooya Akhtar Reema Kagti Dahaad Singham

Indian actor Sonakshi Sinha’s recent Hindi release is a cop drama that traces her character as she investigates the case of a serial killer. Currently streaming on Prime Video, Dahaad is loosely based on the real life case of serial killer Mohan Kumar Vivekanand aka Cyanide Mohan who operated in the Indian state of Karnataka in the early 2000s. In this interview, show creators and co-writers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti talk about working on the show.

The show has been widely appreciated for showing several social flaws ailing India in a sensitive fashion. These include caste and gender based discrimination, among a few others. A common criticism of the show is that Sinha’s character (Anjali Bhati) often becomes flashy and the show highlights her swag, instead of grit and determination at several instance.

Popular Hindi cinema in the recent past have had two famous cop characters -Singham (Ajay Devgn in Rohit Shetty’s cop franchise Singham) and Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan in his franchise Dabangg). Both the characters are full of style and swag, even as they uphold their value system and believe in the rule of the law. Asked if there was a deliberate attempt to match the popular cops from Hindi cinema, Akhtar says, “Not at all. There was no attempt to do that but Anjali Bhati had chip on her shoulder.”

Kagti adds, “Anjali Bhati has had a lot of struggle to reach the place where she is. She had a point to prove. She clawed her way up, she worked very hard and does not want to be vulnerable. She has to hold her own and sometimes that comes across. They need to be that and not vulnerable.”

She adds, “It was an interesting balance to have Devi Singh (Gulshan Devaiah’s character in Dahaad) a male cop in charge of the same station who was much more gentle, has more feminine aspects as opposed to (Bhati’s). Men are like that, women are like this, they have to be in certain situations. Maybe Anjali Bhati will be more vulnerable and open in the next season.”

Akhtar and Kagti say that they met cops and relied on journalistic articles. Zoya says, “We saw the instances of caste-based the eve-teasing of cops, that came from research. We met and talked to so many people. I remember a lady cop told me she was eve-teased while coming station. I was like ‘who would think of teasing a cop?’, but that is the reality. Of course, we created Anjali Bhati, Devi Singh and Kailash Parghi from scratch. Our research was based mostly in Mumbai. We did have a few consultants from Rajasthan and talked to a few people from the state.”