Vikramaditya Motwane to begin new series based in Tihar jail; reveals why Ananya Panday is ‘perfectly cast’ in his thriller Control

“The book covers 35 years of Sunil Gupta’s life in Tihar. It is a 200-page book, so we of course had to slow it down. We are breaking it into a five-year period. It is a very exciting project. It is a new world for me– jail, the 80s, Ranga-Billa case among other things. It is also an opportunity to create this prison drama, to show what all goes behind the scenes,” Motwane said.

The filmmaker was speaking at The Himalayan Film Festival in Leh, where two episodes of Jubilee were screened. The critically acclaimed Amazon Prime Video show stars Prosenjit Chatterjee, Aparshakti Khurana, Sidhant Gupta, Aditi Rao Hydari, Wamiqa Gabbi and Ram Kapoor.

But before the Black Warrant adaptation, Vikramaditya Motwane will have another release–his feature film Control headlined by Ananya Panday. The film is billed as a “screen life thriller” and takes place entirely on a computer screen.

When the project was first announced, many were taken aback by the coming together of Panday and Motwane, known for acclaimed titles like Udaan, Lootera, Trapped and Scared Games. When pointed out, Motwane said Panday–known for her commercial outings– was the perfect fit to lead the film, which he has finished editing.

“This is the first time I am saying it publicly, but she has done a fabulous job in the film. She is perfectly cast in it. The film is about an influencer and her boyfriend and what actually happens. It has got AI, it’s futuristic, it is very cool, it’s a great script. It is in the screen life format, of how Searching and Missing films were. So within that format, we have had our own little fun,” he added.

Ananya Panday recently starred in the Ayushmann Khurrana fronted comedy Dream Girl 2 and has a packed slate which includes her streaming debut Call Me Bae, film Kho Gaye Hum Kahan and a rumoured project with Akshay Kumar.