Nikkhil Advani: Konkona Sen Sharma had to trust co-actor in such a dark subject

A still from the series

After the reviews of Mumbai Diaries' first season poured in, showrunner-creator Nikkhil Advani sat with Aparna Purohit, head of India originals, Amazon Prime Video, and meticulously went through the feedback. The objective was simple: figure out what had worked, what hadn't and what needed to be done going forward. The result is the Mohit Raina and Konkona Sen Sharma-led second season that revisits the 2005 Mumbai floods. Advani begins, "We found out the term 26/11 [on which the first season was centred] was triggering for people. It [was a subject] many people didn't want to revisit. Plus, there weren't enough cliffhangers. But what really worked was that the show was a well-put together ensemble [drama]. Every character had stayed with the audience. The production design, medical jargon, and [treatment] worked."

Nikkhil Advani

Before the team began writing the second edition, Advani knew that every episode needed a cliffhanger. "This time every episode has a high ending," he says. In addition, they needed more of what they had done right the last time around - build memorable characters through which pressing issues can be highlighted. "The second season's theme is abuse - of infrastructure, media, power, and even in interpersonal relationships. Domestic and sexual abuse became critical to mirror what we had in mind. We spent days staring at statistics [that said] 80 per cent of women have faced abuse in a public place. Chitra [Sen Sharma's character] is the strength of the hospital, but she is becoming a domestic violence victim again. I wanted to show how even strong women miss [the signs] when they are gaslit."

Parambrata Chatterjee was an interesting choice to play Chitra's ex. Through his character of a soft-spoken, kind and brilliant doctor, Advani wanted to show how even seemingly harmless people can be predators. "I could be standing in a room full of people, and every man there could possibly be a predator. Param was the most affable man to cast for this. Another aspect that worked was that Param and Konkona have worked together a lot. We needed to take the character places where she had to be alone with the actor, and it is a dark subject. So, she had to trust her co-actor. When I suggested Param, she instantly [agreed]. There is an incredible scene in the fifth episode, which I could have only pulled off with these two actors."