Criminal Justice, The Relationship Manager: Domestic violence on OTT radar

A lot of web shows and films of late have took up domestic violence as the central point of the narrative. We talk to makers and actors about the reason behind it.

OTT platforms have opened up a new avenue for not just content and artistes from all walks of life, but also for different topics to be tapped into. And of late, domestic violence is the one dark reality which has been brought to the fore.

Criminal Justice season two and The Relationship Manager both have domestic violence as a part of their stories.

The Relationship Manager, a short film saw Anuup Soni playing a woman’s relationship manager from her bank, and how he senses something is not right when he calls her. Soni says the content being made in the last few years has come closer to reality. “It’s more like what is happening around us in our society, I feel, apart from just making entertaining films with a lot of fun, people realise that if mainstream also picks up certain subjects related to common people, they are very real and exist in society. It helps us reach a certain conclusion. Kehte hain na, that one effort,” says the 45-year-old.

Criminal Justice season two sees Kirti Kulhari as the protagonist, and deals with multiple issues, primarily those of women safety both outdoors and inside even their homes. Black Widows, with Mona Singh, Shamita Shetty and Swastika Mukherjee, explored their abusive marriages.

RECENT RISE IN CASES

2020 was a tough year, not just due to the Covid pandemic, but also the lockdown. And domestic abuse rates grew at an alarming rate. Can the sudden interest in exploring this subject be attributed to the real life situation?

Yogita Bhayana, founder of NGO PARI, says, “I can say the awareness is more. I don’t know if that was the connect, but definitely the situation has to now be taken seriously. Thappad last year had also got a good response. Nowadays, audiences are gender neutral, which is why these subjects materialise from the woman’ point of view. These projects create awareness and have a major impact on people. It’s good that it is coming to the mainstream. Women, rather than be there as an object or material now have substance.”

Soni on his part adds, “It was important to shoot at that time and present the film to the audience during the lockdown, there was news about increase in domestic violence in our society. Somewhere down the line even if one person gets the message, it’s an achievement.”

OTT GIVES FREEDOM

Makers on their part say that the OTT medium has given them creative freedom. Nikhil Advani, who directed one of the stories in the web anthology Unpaused, says, “There are so many difficult stories which normally we would not even consider making and today our robust writing room at our production house we are constantly working towards that whether it is marital rape, whether it is depression, even Apartment which I made for Unpaused it was about depression, MeToo. These are the things that we want to pick up and these are the things we should pick up.”

Garnering rave reviews for her performance in Criminal Justice, Kulhari says, “Of course the first season did really well, I liked the whole premise of the show about the legal system. Secondly, the theme of this season is something I felt was very important, I needed to be a part of this, it was a story that needs to be told. And thirdly, it was a super tough character to play, it’s a zone that I have never gone into before.”

Adding to the fact that the lockdown certainly led to an increase in domestic violence cases and even more people coming out against it, actor Divya Dutta who played the lead role in The Relationship Manager, says, “Thanks to OTT, it is reaching homes and every kind of audience. I do think a lot of voices have been raised by my own films. Though domestic violence was there before too, in the lockdown everyone was in their space and there was no getting out. But social media has taken a stand, and women have heard other women. The world has become smaller due to OTT platforms.”

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