She goes from housewife to reluctant leader but she only really comes into her own in the last episode which is her big transformation. She’s the one who doesn’t have a sense of identity for a very long time. I think Sara was the most complex to write because she has the most rage simmering inside her that’s covered in this facade of perfection. It was exciting for me to figure out how to communicate what she’s feeling. The most rewarding to write was Batool because she had very little dialogue and so much had to be conveyed through her face and eyes. Jugnu was also a lot of fun to write because I got to include a bit of myself in it and be very open with what I was trying to say. But I think it’s a fantastic performance from Yasra Rizvi, she’s the one actor who did the most homework on her character. It’s interesting though, I’m getting a lot of love for Jugnu especially from India so I wonder if there is something to that. I don’t think I have a favourite, I think I have parts of me in all of them so it’s difficult. She was just a joy to watch and had so much going on beneath the surface. So the heavy-handed use of metaphors was deliberate. This had to be over the top and loud and out there. I knew it would end up on a personal story and I knew I wanted to do prostitution ring but the animal mask thing came later because the idea of subverting fairy tales was very important to me, like Zubaida’s dress being red like Little Red Riding hood and things like that.Īnd people will think it’s strange for a filmmaker to say this but I wasn’t really striving for nuance with this. I think it was all these themes that I have grown up with and seen in my life that I’ve been trying to grapple with whether its colourism or oppression of women. What was the germ of the idea for the show? Was it the story of these four women or the statements you wanted to make? The show touches on so many social issues, like gender equality, class, colourism and racism. I don’t think you get that even with the international platforms. I think to get that level of support and creative freedom from the executive gives you a lot of confidence. Those two were my big worries but they liked it. And again with episode 7 with the prostitution ring. For episode 4 in particular (which features a woman cooking and eating her husband) I was really scared they would say ‘okay this can’t happen’. Yeah, I was worried! (laughs) Every time I would send in an episode for approval, I was worried they’d be like ‘this has gone somewhere completely different’. Did they know what they were signing up for? But the show that starts is very different from the one that ends. I read that ZEE5 greenlit the show after you submitted the pilot. But the number of people who’ve binged it is crazy, even I couldn’t do that. I designed the episodes to be very long, so I thought this would be more along the lines of HBO prestige dramas where you watch an episode or two every few days. I’m so shocked that people are binge-watching it. So there is a lot of my own indulgences in there.īut I’m so shocked that people are binge-watching it. I even break my own rules when I make you feel like I’m going to tell you one new story every week but episode 5 onwards I change it. I take you on a fun ride then I try and screw with you. It’s a very risky structure in terms of storytelling. I’m sure there are people who are also going to have story issues with it and that’s fine. I wasn’t scared about whether people will struggle to put this in a box. No, it didn’t because that’s the beauty of the web. Were you worried about how people might respond to the changing structure? It starts out as this playful story about catching unfaithful husbands, then it becomes a dark drama and ends as almost a thriller. In many ways the show felt like three seasons in one. But of course, there is also the anti-feminist groups who don’t like the fact that women are not shown as oppressed.Īlso Read: Rahul Desai’s Review Of Churails It’s good to see that people are really getting to the depth of it and trying to get in my head and figure out the fairytale references and metaphors and stuff like that. I think people are either going crazy loving it or hating it and that’s fine. What’s the response to the show been like so far? Arguably ZEE5’s best show yet, Churails is the result of Zee Entertainment relaunching it’s Pakistani channel Zindagi TV on streaming. Over a Zoom call, creator Abbasi spoke to me about the show’s winding structure, his love of food metaphors, why he’s surprised people are binge-watching it and how Big Little Liesserved as his own film school for long-form storytelling.
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