Monika Shergill, VP-Content, Netflix India on their latest series Scoop, by filmmaker Hansal Mehta.
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Behind the start of a partnership, is sometimes a missed opportunity. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta’s latest series Scoop marks the first collaboration between him and Netflix India and while the show is already garnering praise, the collaborators had almost come together for the filmmaker’s sensational hit – Scam: 1992.
There were reports that before the Pratik Gandhi-led series found its way to SonyLIV and emerged as one of the biggest OTT success stories of recent times, it also did the rounds of Netflix India for streaming. Things, however, didn’t materialise.
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In an interview with indianexpress.com, Monika Shergill, Vice President, Content, said the streamer would have loved to have Scam on their platform as it would have found a “natural home”, but every show has its own destiny.
When asked if it hurt when Scam missed the Netflix radar, Shergill said, “I mean, would we have wanted it to be on Netflix? Absolutely yes. It’s a great show, it’s a defining show and it would have found a very natural home on Netflix. But I think every project, story has its own destiny. There are so many things that you admire about what’s on other services; other services might be thinking, ‘Oh this title from Netflix could have been on ours.’ It’s meant to be like that, it had to be on SonyLIV.”
The VP added that their collaboration with Mehta with Scoop, the latest series led by Karishma Tanna, was in alignment with the current times and their intent to push the storytelling envelope further. “As Hansal said earlier, it is that moment in time when there is a shift happening, when you are getting an opportunity to tell three-dimensional stories, create that world… It is not linear, flat.
“Most movies in India have been linear, single layered, but what is happening now with the new medium is the ability to expose audience to this new world… So, Scam was brilliant, and people are absolutely also going to love Scoop.”
Hansal Mehta said if it wasn’t for Scam, “there would not be Scoop”. The filmmaker said every story that one tells, “irrespective of where it goes,” facilitates the next. “That progression, that evolution is important. That stage in the evolution, from Scam to Scoop, has been facilitated and it’s a bigger role… For a storyteller, your previous story plays a catalyst to tell the next story and the next story finds its home,” he added.
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Inspired by Jigna Vora’s biographical book Behind The Bars In Byculla: My Days in Prison, Scoop is created by Hansal Mehta and Thappad co-writer Mrunmayee Lagoo. The series sees Karishma as Jagruti Pathak, an ambitious crime journalist, who becomes a murder suspect.
Justin Rao writes on all things Bollywood at Indian Express Online. An alumnus of ACJ, he has keen interest in exploring industry features, long form interviews and spreading arms like Shah Rukh Khan. You can follow him on Twitter @JustinJRao
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