Pushkar and Gayatri have earned the reputation of being smart filmmakers. Their films and shows – be it Vikram Vedha or Suzhal: The Vortex – have always ignited chatter. As Suzhal returns for a second season on Prime Video, the filmmakers chat with HT about the show and how their research can lead them to unusual rabbit holes. (Also read: Suzhal The Vortex creators Pushkar-Gayatri say show makes Broadchurch, Mare of Eastown’s genre ‘as Indian as possible’)
About Suzhal Season 2
The first season of Suzhal felt like a self-contained story, but the makers are now back with season 2. Pushkar explains, “This was always the plan. We wanted to take the story of Sakkarai and Nandini (played by Kathir and Aishwarya Rajesh, respectively) and give them arcs that continue beyond seasons. The idea was to have a new mystery, a new case but with these two characters acting as the common elements.”
Nikhil Madhok, Head of Original Content India at Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios, tells HT that shows like Suzhal have expanded what a tentpole title means to Indian OTT players. “If you look back at season 1, we had embraced it as a global tentpole. Regardless of where the story originates, as long as it is powerful and we are able to make it accessible in multiple languages to viewers across the world, anything can be a tentpole,” he says.
The filmmakers used the small-town murder trope in season one, similar to how shows like Twin Peaks and Broadchurch have. In season 2, they bring in the locked room mystery trope. Talking about their use of these formulae, Gayatri says, “We are big consumers of content. We watch a lot of stuff whether it is films, TV, or OTT. And if we like a concept that we come across, we see if there is a way we can tell it in our way.”
But this voracious consumption of content means that they often have to scrap things they start writing as they come across similar shows or films elsewhere. “There were scripts we scrapped for obvious reasons,” says Gayatri.
When demonetisation derailed their film
The most hilarious such incident had to do with real life, though, says Pushkar. “There was this feature script we were writing based on an idea that ended with demonetisation as the climax. And six months later, it happened in real life. Dude, we lost the climax of the film!” Gayatri echoes, “It’s not even from another film or show, but it’s happening live in reality. This is way more shocking.”
Pushkar explains that the idea for their script came from a case of demonetisation decades ago, and they felt it was ‘unknown’ enough to be surprising as a plot point. “There was an earlier incident when Rajaji (C Rajagopalachari) demonetised the ₹1000 note at one point in time. That’s lost in history. We took that as the concept, spoke to an uncle who was an IAS officer, and kept it all under the covers. We didn’t speak about that idea to anybody because we wanted it to be a surprise. And bam, we lost the climax,” he says.
Suzhal: The Vortex season 2 brings back Kathir and Aishwarya Rajesh, along with Lal, Saravanan, Manjima Mohan, and Monisha Blessy. The 8-episode season is scheduled for release on February 28 on Prime Video.