Four years after helming the Ajay Devgn-led war drama Bhuj: The Pride of India (2021), director Abhishek Dudhaiya is back — but not on celluloid. He is writing and producing the play, Junoon, a modern-day adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy, Othello. “I love Shakespeare’s writing as it has strong characters and drama. Of so many [Indian] adaptations of Othello, the only modern one was Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara [2006],” he reflects.

Originally, Dudhaiya had written the adaptation as a web series. But before taking it on OTT, the writer and producer wanted to gauge its effectiveness as a story. After all, he has made a significant change in the story — Iago, a principal character who manipulates Othello and sets off a chain of events, has been imagined as a woman in his adaptation. “I have made Iago into a female character, to be played by a senior actor. I have also made her older than what he was in Shakespeare’s Othello. In Junoon, she is called Ranjana and shares a complex relationship with Othello.”  

Abhishek Dudhaiya