'In our Indian content, you always see the mother is presented a bit differently.'
'But in this show, the mother is the one who's most glamorous and she is the bombshell of the show.'
For Director Ruchi Narain, it's been a journey of well over 20 years in pushing the boundaries and creating new pathways for herself.
Ruchi wrote Sudhir Mishra's Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003) and directed the Netflix film, Guilty (2020).
Her new show Karmma Calling stars Raveena Tandon in the lead.
"The translation of revenge, if you're doing it for India and in Hindi, is badla. But if you take the idea of revenge to our context, it means coming around of something, which is karam. I wanted to make sure that the title has the idea of karma in it," Ruchi tells Mayur Sanap/Rediff.com.
The first of a two-part interview:
You apparently spent years trying to land the rights to remake Revenge. What's you fascination with that show?
Just as a pure consumer, when I started watching that show, I loved it.
I felt addicted to it.
The inherent David versus Goliath kind of story, where someone unassuming and weaker takes on such powerful forces is what really attracted us to the story.
I think everyone can relate to that.
When I was seeing the first episode itself, I just thought this would be great in the Indian situation.
Also, it lends itself very well to a glamorous world which Indian audiences like seeing. And frankly, the way India does glamour, I don't think the West can even imagine that. (Laughs)
We have our own levels of how big things can get in terms of scale.
The festivals we celebrate, the clothes, the jewellery, the setting, the occasions, everything.
I thought the show can look even bigger in the Indian context. And the nuanced type of relationships we have here would make the content richer.
What were the challenges to remodel the script to Indian high society?
The challenges are also the fun part.
Just re-imagining it in our context, the way we do things, the kind of characters we have, was fun.
For example, in Revenge, the character that Namrata (Sheth) plays, she's much colder and extremely self-assured.
I thought in the Indian context, young girls are not brought up that way. So I wanted to tweak that character a little bit.
Even in the mother and son relationship, we added our cultural context to it.
The concept of karma is huge in the Indian culture. What was your thought behind the show's title?
I'm so happy you've asked me this question.
See, earlier people used to do straight rip off. Now everybody at least knows the culture of purchasing rights.
People are starting to understand that adaptation is actually a creative art form.
Like, in the Oscars, there's a category for Adapted Screenplay. (Martin) Scorsese won an Oscar for his film The Departed, which is an adaptation of another film.
There is an actual art form to it, and it's like you're ready to acknowledge what you're doing.
The best way for me to explain the original show's title Revenge was to give it an ultimate Indian context.
The translation of revenge, if you're doing it for India and in Hindi, is badla. But if you take the idea of revenge to our context, it means coming around of something, which is karam.
I wanted to make sure that the title has the idea of karma in it.
It's like what you sow is what you reap. What you do is going to come back to you.
That is the essence of the show.
And for me, it embodies my idea of what is an adaptation.
How did you zero down on Raveena Tandon for the show?
There's one very important aspect of the character that Raveena plays: She is the older woman. She's the mother of Varun Sood's character.
In our Indian content, you always see the mother is presented a bit differently. But in this show, the mother is the one who's most glamorous and she is the bombshell of the show. Despite the fact that there are so many young people in it.
That is also one of the things that attracted me to the show because that in itself is a revolutionary idea.
Frankly, if you look at the Raveena today, it was a no brainer for me because of two reasons.
One is, of course, her looks, which was a very important aspect of it.
The second was that her character has a lot of internal and inherent power. And that power comes from a lot of conviction in herself.
I feel that Raveena has that.
She's nice, she's fun, all those things, but she has very strong conviction about how she wants to live her life.
That is what I found common with the essence of Indrani (Raveena's character).
What did you learn about Raveena after working with her?
I've known her for a few years now, and have always wanted to do a show with her.
There are two things which I got to know about her.
She looks even better when she's not wearing makeup.
In this show, of course, you have the glamour side. But most of the show is when she is sitting in the home atmosphere. I also wanted to capture that about her.
The other thing is that I find her quite a brave person, overall.
She has taken brave decisions and she's been brave enough to live with the consequences, whether she's spoken up about something or done something. I think that has paid off.
