Director Aditya Sarpotdar tells Sakshi Sharma that his series, The Raikar Case, explores the dark sides of a family, though in a culture set-up
What if one day you find out that every member of your family is hiding a dark secret of his own? A range of questions will flood your mind — Do I really know my people? Have we really known each other’s reality all this while? Well, for director Aditya Sarpotdar, these complex questions were exciting enough to be shaped into a murder mystery, where one dark event gets connected to a family and each of its members.
A propulsive and engaging series, The Raikar Case, is about family, love, deceit, and the secrets that wrench them apart. It says that the most dangerous people come disguised as family. The thriller grapples with the dilemma of ‘Will you choose truth over family?’ and if trust can ever really be absolute. Secret and lies are exposed when the youngest member of the family commits suicide — leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions and suspects.
How did you conceptualise the series The Raikar Case?
It is a collaborative work. There are a lot of minds behind it. When I came into play, there was a basic draft of two to three pages but there was no screenplay and a lot of characterisation had to be done. We were just brainstorming about how to take things forward and it hit my mind to make it a family drama. In India, we always look at family in the most perfect sense — with respect and moral values. But I wanted the audience to flip the whole idea and imagine their family to be hideous. Which might make one think, ‘Do I really know my people?’ It is exciting to explore that do we know each other’s lives inside out. But what if we don’t? After pondering over all these complex questions, we decided to combine all this into a murder mystery.
In the beginning itself, we see the disheartened youngest member of the family Tarun Naik Raikar (played by Honey Kamboj) jumping off a cliff. We decided the youngest to be the victim because he can gain sympathy and people would really feel for him. Before his death, Tarun was trying to find something and that is what has connected the whole series to the dark side of the family. Then one after the other, there are characters coming into play. This is how the whole show is developed. We made sure to keep the basic relationship and Indian values intact. Even if it’s a revengeful family, living in a cultured set-up is important. The social structure of Indian families is very complex. So we did a lot of research and then finally chose to show the scenes which were able to convey the dynamics of Indian families.
You have done films like Classmates (2015), Mauli (2018), Thodi Thodi Si Manmaniyan (2017) and many more. This is the first time you have done something like this...
Yes. Mauli is an action film. After doing that, I decided not to repeat any genre. So thriller was something I hadn’t tried before and I badly wanted to do it. Moreover, I also wanted to try the web space as I was intrigued by it. I love watching web shows and their format. This series was all that I wanted at that moment — thriller and web in one.
Were there any reference points from real instances?
There wasn’t any such real case that you could connect to. But there are a lot of cases where the families have found themselves into the dark — right from the Arushi murder case (2008) to other extreme cases where the parent or child is a murderer. We referred to such cases but it was pure fiction. Our research was more with the setup. For instance, if the setup is of Goa, the kind of people there, their culture, family setup and how to make it look more realistic and believable.
Was there any specific reason behind choosing Goa as the main location?
We chose Goa because we wanted something controlled, a smaller setup, where a family crime can get a major reaction. In cities like Mumbai and Delhi, such crimes take place often at multiple places and are lost. Nobody asks about them after a day. But in Goa, a murder case of a renowned family is big. Another reason behind choosing Goa was its truly appealing location. It worked very well with the theme.
I have also shot two feature film in Goa — Satrangi Re (2012) and my first film Uladhaal (2008). During those times, I explored Goa a lot. I have also done some ad films there. I am connected to it in more ways than one. So we were very clear about which area we wanted to shoot? And we found some really good locations!
Given that there have been a number of murder mysteries written and filmed in the past, you always need something new that cannot be easily predicted or guessed. How is it that you found an angle in a way that you can bring something completely new to the audience?
Yes. When you talk about murder mysteries, you need to explore things which people can not easily judge or guess because that’s the whole trick about writing them. You need to be one step ahead, in a space where people can’t guess the murderer. If they are able to make out what’s there in the second episode, the whole point of murder mystery is lost. It’s important to write in a smart way so that you always misguide the audience about the murderer. You also need to be cautious about the main murderer as s/he is usually there in front but the focus has to be shifted to someone else. So we wanted to take an approach where the killer doesn’t seem obvious. It’s not a show about finding an assaulter or a rapist, this is about an individual you are living with.
It must have been challenging...
Definitely. When a show gets released, you never know how people are going to accept it. Will they be able to accept a family so dark or will they accept the fact that a family can have such hideous characters? But because you’re writing such a series, you have to understand that not everything works as planned. It goes for a toss. The audience might like it extraordinarily or might not even want to watch the second episode after the first. It’s not easy to convince everyone about a particular series or show because we all have different tastes and preferences. But that is the beauty of web — you can explore things in chunks. Honestly, I don’t think any production house would make a film on this. That is where the web gives us an upper hand.
I wanted to do something purely original. It had to be something that the audience has never seen before. So the risk was higher. If you are adapting something it is completely different because it is safe and might work as it is tried and tested. But I feel it loses its fun and charm. Every series is made at a certain time period, set-up and place. And all of it has its own connect with the audience of that time. First will always remain first.
We can see a surge of realistic films in the Hindi cinema. Do you think murder mysteries are still among the viewers’ favourites?
They have a separate target audience. People who like murder mysteries get personally involved in them. As the story flows, they try to figure out who did it, challenge their thinking and wit, and take it to a certain direction. As far as realistic films are concerned, usually, the Ayushmann (Khurrana) or Rajkummar (Rao) ones, they are family films. Yes, the audience for realistic films is certainly growing now but then there are all kinds of genres which also caters to a particular set of audience.
People are clear that a murder mystery will not show anything that they can relate to or connect themselves personally like they can in films based on real issues. So this genre has become confined to OTT now. People watch it on their phones, tabs or laptops but might not like to watch it in theatres. So here comes another segregation that this genre is great for web and OTT only. People are very selective about what they want to watch in theatres.
In one of your interviews in 2012, you mentioned that you want to bring a considerable change in the Marathi film industry. You said, “It should have improved technical features similar to that of Bollywood films...”
I think we have achieved a lot in the past seven to eight years. We had been able to create many sub-effects, animations, new sets and designs. In 2012, the Marathi film industry was quite small and didn’t have enough budget. Post that, it has grown up to be really huge. The budgets have really turned up and the audience feels a great connect. We have done quite well as an industry overall and have worked hard to reach a good level so that we are seen as an important industry.
The younger generation has a huge role to play here. It is a more talented and an ambitious generation. They are more experimental because its their “first.” So the kind of hard work they put in it is great. They are not at all oblivious about the realities of the industry and remain almost untouched as an artiste. They are not really inclined to becoming a commercial face or hold on to the dynamics of how it all works. Once you make your first film, you get your second and then you get more open to the world. You start understanding things logically and practically. Not to forget, they also make a lot of mistakes initially but that’s how you learn.
(The series is streaming on Voot Select).