‘Kohrra’ Showrunner Sudip Sharma On Portraying Punjab, Indian Crime Drama And The Streamers’ Changing Taste
25.07.2023 - 04:43
/ deadline.com
Since launching on Netflix on July 15, Indian crime drama Kohrra has shot to the top of the streamer’s Indian rankings and had critics, audiences and industry figures including Karan Johar raving about the show.
In addition to describing it as an atmospheric murder mystery, local critics have praised the series for being an incisive portrait of contemporary Punjab, the northwestern Indian state where it is set.
The six-part series follows two cops – played by Suvinder Vicky and Barun Sobti – investigating the murder of an NRI (non-resident Indian) who lives in London but has travelled to India for an arranged marriage. After he’s found dead in a field, with the British friend who had accompanied him also missing, the cops start to unravel not just a murder case, but a complex web of family secrets, land-related power plays, childhood trauma and parental patriarchy.
Randeep Jha, who also directed critically acclaimed drama Trial By Fire, directed the series, which is produced by Clean Slate Films and also stars Manish Chaudhary, Varun Badola, Amaninder Pal Singh, Aanand Priya, Arjuna Bhalla, Harleen Sehti and British actress Rachel Shelley.
Showrunner Sudip Sharma, who worked with writers Gunjit Chopra and Diggi Sisodia on the series, is no stranger to hardboiled crime drama as he also created investigative thriller Paatal Lok, one of India’s most critically acclaimed shows. He also knows Punjab as his credits include co-writing Abhishek Chaubey’s 2016 feature film Udta Punjab, a crime drama revolving around the state’s drugs trafficking industry.
Sharma tells Deadline that when the Chopra and Sisodia approached him with the project, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do another crime drama so soon after Paatal Lok, but