More than a decade ago, the horrific murder of Mumbai-based crime reporter J Dey shocked the country, as did the arrest of his fellow crime reporter Jigna Vora, who was accused of leaking vital information that resulted in the murder.
Scoop, a six-part series inspired by the book Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison, written by Jigna Vora, but going much beyond that, streams on Netflix this Friday. Directed by Hansal Mehta — the man behind many a compelling real-life screen adaptation — Scoop is headlined by Karishma Tanna, who plays Jagruti Pathak and is modelled on Vora, and stars an eclectic cast, including our very own Prosenjit.
At the Netflix office in Mumbai recently, TT chatted with Hansal, Karishma and the show’s writer Mrunmayee Lagoo on the hows and whys of Scoop.
What prompted this series?
Hansal Mehta: Matchbox Shots, the producers of the series, came to me with the book. I enjoyed what I read, but I said that this has to go beyond that. This was before Scam (1992, Hansal’s much-feted series on the rise and fall of stock market king Harshad Mehta). We were not sure whether it was going to be a film or a series. I said: ‘Let’s make it into a series’.
Then, we needed a good writer. I asked them to get Mrunmayee (Lagoo). I had seen Thappad (written by Mrunmayee). Things kept falling into place, and after Scam, it accelerated. Before that, Mrunmayee did all the heavy lifting. She created a world that went way beyond the book....
The book is about Jigna’s time in prison, but Scoop is much more than that....
Hansal: Yes, about her nine months in prison. But we did not want to make a prison story. We wanted to make a story about hustle, about the city and this character of Jagruti Patak (Karishma Tanna) hustling in Mumbai.
She is a woman with small aspirations. We wanted to look at how those aspirations take her through a hellhole and how the same spirit that brings her down also brings her back up.
What are your memories from the real-life incident that took place more than a decade ago?
Mrunmayee Lagoo: I remember the news of the murder because it happened in broad daylight and in such a big junction in Powai (a Mumbai suburb). It was unbelievable that something like this could happen. With regard to the rest of what followed, I didn’t know much. I was just starting to work as an AD (assistant director), and I remember my parents telling me: ‘Be careful. There are murders happening in broad daylight.’
Karishma Tanna: I read it in the newspaper. We had always seen these things happening in films, and when I heard something like this had happened in Powai. It was very shocking.
Hansal: I found it even more shocking when a few months later, Jigna got arrested. I actually followed that more... and I found it fascinating... that how is she suddenly being thought of as a murderer? She’s an every woman. How is she a murderer?! Even as a storyteller, it freaks you out... is she a murderer, is she not?
That question haunted me. But headlines come and go... one headline is replaced by another. The human being suffers, but people move on to a new headline, to a new person, a new event. But this headline came back... for us to tell this story.
Jagruti Pathak is a very ambitious woman. Do you think that ambition in women, no matter what field they work in, is looked at as a bad thing?
Mrunmayee: This attitude that you talk about towards an ambitious woman has always been there. Our roles are so specific. So any woman stepping outside of that role is told: ‘That’s not your role. This is your role.’
If a man were to say: ‘I am not going to earn anything. I don’t want to get out and work. I don’t want to be the provider of the family. I want to be an artist. I want to live for myself,’ then that is also looked upon as a selfish thing. Roles are so defined... that this is a man’s thing, this is a woman’s thing. That I think is now changing with more women assuming multiple roles in their lives... as partners, breadwinners, mothers....
What kind of research went into making Scoop and how much of it is real and how much imagined?
Hansal: It is very intricately researched, But mostly imagined. We have drawn from the research, but have an entirely fictionalised, dramatised version, which is inspired by the idea in the book.
Mrunmayee: The research was only so that we got the world correct... that we are not portraying something that is implausible in a newsroom or in a courtroom. There was a fight on her part to get bail. We had to ensure that we knew those processes and showed them correctly.
Karishma, what went into becoming Jagruti?
Karishma: The characteristics of Jagruti at the start of the story are very me. She’s ambitious... I am also very ambitious. She has that hunger to be on the top... I do too. She’s very restless and impatient and I am that too. But I didn’t know anything about journalism, so I had to read a lot. I had to shadow a journalist...
I have hardly seen news (smiles) It was very alien to me. So when I got into the character, I asked the team to give me the script so that I could understand all the technical words.
Her body language keeps changing. There is the strong side of her, and then she is also a mother., how she hustles between work and motherhood... and how she wants to be at the top and get all the scoops.... And then, suddenly, Jagruti lands in jail. There is a full 360-degree change, that confidence shattering.... I literally had to feel like Jigna/ Jagruti and feel the part for me to get the emotions right. It was tough.
Did you always want to tell the story from Jigna/ Jagruti’s point of view?
Hansal: It was always meant to be her story. We have all seen gangster stories, the gangster-police nexus, and so on from a very inside point of view. In Scoop, one gets to see it from the point of view of a reporter. It was fascinating because the moment you shift the camera, then it becomes almost like seeing it from over the shoulder of a reporter. Your entire gaze changes.
Here, you don’t see the gangsters. They are just voices on the phone. They are seen through shattered glass and stains of blood. It’s all the aftermath and the reporter has to imagine that, investigate and report it.
I ended up with a greater amount of respect and empathy for the job of a reporter. A reporter who does his or her job well, has to do this. Even a corrupt reporter, even if he is biased, has to investigate first. You have to report, you have to write.... It’s a thankless job for most.
In most gangster films, there will be a shootout and the story will intercut to a journalist standing there with a mic. From one scene to the other, the journalist serves as a time-lapse device. But in our show, it’s the other way around.
You just said that you’ve developed some new-found respect for reporters, of course, the ones who do their jobs honestly. Is Scoop a commentary on journalism then and now?
Hansal: When you go up to the last episode, you will realise that it Scoop also tells you the perils of this job... that today, somebody who wants to report truthfully faces the peril of being imprisoned, persecuted, harassed or even killed. You are an ordinary person trying to do a job, not even getting paid a great amount of money. Yet, you are endangering yourself, putting yourself out there, in service of the story. That’s where the respect comes from.
You have a banger of a cast, each of who fits the bill. You have brought back Harman Baweja, who delivers a stellar performance. Also, very happy to see Prosenjit play such a pivotal part....
Hansal: It comes from a sense of freedom and success. Scam 1992’s success empowered me to think out of the box and to actually cast appropriately. When I said the character is bigger than the star for this particular story, Netflix backed my vision.
When the character needed somebody larger than life we had Bumbada (Prosenjit). In the case of Harman, it was inspired casting. I am waiting for the world to see Harman in this role. Zeeshan (Ayyub) is, of course, an absolute gem of an actor and I am thankful that we cast him. He elevates every scenes he is in.
Karishma embodies the way the character was conceived. In life, she is unpretentious in her ambition, in her quest to prove a point to the world. To rise above her circumstances, to rise above the ordinary, that unpretentious hustle is what Karishma is.
What is it about real-life stories that appeal to you?
Hansal: It’s organic. It’s just that I have done so many of them back to back. It’s okay, I get paid for it! (Laughs)
Do controversial real-life figures intrigue you more?
Hansal: Controversy is a creation, it’s a word. The story has to be compelling, the dynamics of the story have to make you relate to them. For me, Scoop is essentially a family drama....
The relatability factor is very high....
Hansal: Very high. It could just happen to anyone and Jagruti could be from my family. When I was shooting it, I felt like I was capturing a moment in the life of my own family. Even Karishma got attached to the other actors who play her family. Every time she would cry, I would tell her: ‘But you don’t have to cry in this scene!’ (Laughs)
