\n\tBased on \u201cBlack Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer\u201d by Sunil Gupta and journalist Sunetra Choudhury, the series chronicles Gupta\u2019s 35-year career at India\u2019s notorious Tihar prison, where he oversaw infamous inmates including serial killer Charles Sobhraj and and kidnappers Kuljeet Singh (alias\u00a0Ranga Khus) and Jasbir Singh (alias Billa).<\/p>\n
\n\tMotwane, also known for Netflix\u2019s \u201cSacred Games,\u201d explained that the adaptation process required narrowing the book\u2019s extensive timespan. \u201cWhen you read the book, it\u2019s fantastic because it\u2019s so dramatic. Sunil Gupta gets a job \u2013 on the very first day, he\u2019s meeting Charles Sobhraj, who he didn\u2019t know about. Within the first year, he\u2019s in charge of the hanging of Ranga and Billa,\u201d Motwane said.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n\tRather than attempting to cover all 35 years, Motwane and co-creator Satyanshu Singh decided to focus the first season on just four years of Gupta\u2019s career. \u201cOtherwise, it\u2019d start to become very episodic, just looking at hanging after hanging. Is there any fun in that?\u201d Motwane explained.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe project originated with journalist Josie Joseph and Confluence Media, who initially identified the book\u2019s adaptation potential before approaching Motwane. \u201cJosie reached out to me to say, are you interested? I read the book, got Satya involved, and said, \u2018Let\u2019s adapt this.\u2019 We set up, wrote a Bible, wrote two episodes, and then I took it to Sameer,\u201d Motwane said. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe series embraced a mix of established and emerging talent, with Kapoor playing the protagonist Sunil Gupta and Bhat portraying Deputy Superintendent of Police Tomar.<\/p>\n
\n\tBhat, known for playing the lead in Anurag Kashyap\u2019s Cannes-selected \u201cKennedy,\u201d described his approach to the morally complex character: \u201cAny character, even if it\u2019s a villain, you still have to relate to and have empathy towards. You have to represent him. You\u2019re that character\u2019s lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Kapoor, grandson of renowned actor Shashi Kapoor and deeply connected to Mumbai\u2019s Prithvi Theatre legacy, his theater background proved invaluable. Motwane praised Kapoor\u2019s contributions beyond acting: \u201cThe years at Prithvi have taught him so much about character, drama, story, and script. Such a value add.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tKapoor was cast through an audition process that Motwane described as immediately convincing: \u201cWithin the first 10 seconds of his audition, you know he\u2019s the guy. It was very meta, because the scene he auditioned for was the very first scene of the series when he\u2019s going for the interview.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI was always a little bit apprehensive of trying to manipulate and manufacture some kind of image or impression on the audience of who I am. I always found that to be slightly dishonest,\u201d Kapoor said. \u201cI\u2019m much more a product of Prithvi Theatre than I am of the film fraternity legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBlack Warrant\u201d employed multiple directors under Motwane\u2019s showrunning, a model he believes should become standard for Indian streaming series. \u201cIt\u2019s a very efficient model of being able to work, where you can get work done quicker, more efficiently with fresher minds,\u201d Motwane explained.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe series featured five directors total, including Motwane, Singh, Arkesh Ajay, Rohin Raveendran Nair, and Ambiecka Pandit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAs a showrunner, you can detach a little bit. The importance for me is making sure that my character arcs are being served in the way we set them out right in the beginning,\u201d Motwane said.<\/p>\n
\n\tSameer Nair of Applause Entertainment highlighted their production approach of making content before securing a platform. \u201cWhen we\u2019re doing this, there\u2019s a little bit of butterfly in the stomach that you\u2019re taking a lot of decisions that other people now have to like before the audience likes it,\u201d Nair said. He praised Netflix for understanding their vision: \u201cWith all due credit to Netflix, they got it straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRegarding star power versus ensemble casting in streaming, Nair offered: \u201cIn the series business, these are longer stories, deeper stories, richer stories. You get a chance to get an ensemble cast, find new actors, and surprise audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Read More<\/a>
\n Naman Ramachandran<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBlack Warrant,\u201d the hit Netflix series currently in the platform\u2019s India Top 10 nearly three months after its premiere, was the focus of a panel at the ongoing Cinevesture International Film Festival in Chandigarh, India. The discussion featured creator-showrunner Vikramaditya Motwane, producer Sameer Nair of Applause Entertainment, and lead actors Zahan Kapoor and Rahul Bhat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":836133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2105,1798,1372],"tags":[5118,12951],"class_list":{"0":"post-836132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-black","8":"category-entertainment","9":"category-warrant","10":"tag-black","11":"tag-warrant"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}