Hunkkaar creators were stunned to see 'sweet' Raghubir Yadav transform into sinister villain: 'Nobody has seen that'

Karan D Kapadia and Nitya Mehra, creators of Hunkkaar, talk about the show and Raghubir Yadav's anti-casting as the villain.

The upcoming JioHotstar show Hunkkaar is filled to the brim with talented actors. From Fatima Sana Shaikh and Aneet Padda to Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub and Ram Kapoor, it is a stacked cast. But as the trailer dropped, the one person who grabbed eyeballs was Raghubir Yadav. The veteran actor, known for playing mild-mannered, likeable good guys, has been cast against type as the villain, the self-proclaimed godman accused of sexual assault. The show’s creators, Karan D Kapadia and Nitya Mehra, talk to Hindustan Times about his casting, the idea of the show, and more.

Raghubir Yadav plays the antagonist in Hunkkaar.

HT: It says a lot about our society that we have so many stories of self-proclaimed godmen being dragged to court for sexual crimes, which has led to multiple films and shows on it. How do you keep Hunkkaar distinct from the titles that came before it?

Karan D Kapadia: I think more than the idea of standing up against a godman, it's more towards standing up against a person who is revered and has a position of power in our society. I think the lens is more about the battle of taking on someone who has infinitely more resources than you, someone who has infinitely more influence over you, someone who's trying to actively silence you for the crime that they have committed.

Nitya Mehra: The godman really stands for so much more than just the godman; it really stands for people in power. And I think we just found our way of telling it.

HT: A byproduct of the proliferation of crime dramas on streaming has been an increase in female protagonists as cops or investigating officers. But even that is becoming a trope now. How did you ensure that you wouldn’t fall into the trap of creating a stereotypical ‘female cop’ with Fatima Sana Shaikh's character in Hunkkaar?

Karan D Kapadia: The tropes are inevitable. It's how you mask them to make them unique. What you said is very important: she's not necessarily a "woman cop", she's a cop. We put the lens and ask the wrong question if we say, "Oh, now it's a woman cop, so what are the tropes that go with it vis-à-vis patriarchy, vis-à-vis not getting your say, vis-à-vis all these ideas?" For us, it was very important for our character to have a razor-sharp focus on the investigation, on bringing the facts to light, on believing the victim's narrative, on being the emotional backbone of that family, and on protecting that family against the world at large. I think we've been able to stay away largely from conventional tropes of what a female officer goes through, without approaching it as "Oh, she's a female cop in authority, so what are her challenges?"

Nitya Mehra: I think for the longest time I was dealing with labels like "Nitya is a good female director". I feel like, can one day I just be called just a director? So that naturally goes into when we write characters; it's a lived experience, actually. The reason it's become a trope is that we've made such a big deal around the idea.

HT: I want to come to the character of Baapji in the show. You cast Raghubir Yadav, the man who has made a name playing the good-natured uncle for years.

Karan D Kapadia: I think it's precisely for the reason you're saying, because the last thing you want to do is typecast people, right? Typecast is literally a casting term. In that sense, you want to do the opposite because people know he's a real kalakaar.

Nitya Mehra: I cannot explain to you how difficult those scenes are, because very often directors draw from the person they cast, but in this case, he is diametrically opposite. He is the sweetest kalakar you will ever meet, a true artist. For filmmakers and actors, to take a person nobody has seen in that avatar is great, and to get a guy like him to agree to play a role he has never touched is challenge upon challenge—re-envisioning him, making him sinister yet not playing a villain just for the sake of playing a villain.

Karan Kapadia: I think that's the genius of it. Credit to Mukesh Chhabra for this brainwave—the anti-casting idea. Returning to our avoidance of conventional tropes of the sinister bad guy, our godman is based on a whole host of people, not just one person.

Hunkkaar: The Roar, stars Fatima Sana Shaikh, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub, Raghubir Yadav, Aneet Padda, Ram Kapoor, Arjun Mathur, and Zoya Hussain. The series focuses on a schoolgirl’s allegation of sexual harassment against a revered self-proclaimed godman and the investigation into it. It will release on JioHotstar on September 25.