Director Habib Faisal builds an old-world charm with Disney+ Hotstar’s latest series, Dil Bekarar. Set in the ’80s Delhi, the show — featuring Sahher Bambba — is a screen adaptation of Anuja Chauhan’s novel Those Pricey Thakur Girls. Portraying a literary character comes with its own set of expectations. “A lot of homework went into fleshing out the role. Besides organising workshops for us, Habib sir supplied me with video material and links to use as reference for news reading, articulation, body language,” says the actor who played the character of Debjani Thakur — a strong-headed woman working as a Doordarshan anchor.

Sahher Bambba and Akshay Oberoi in Dil Bekarar