Kohrra and Paatal Lok creator Sudip Sharma on his fascination for violence, why Tom and Jerry is a ‘dangerous’ show and his version of DDLJ

In an interview with indianexpress.com, Sharma talks about how the project fell into place, his passion for violence, how he views Punjab differently, and what his version of Shah Rukh Khan’s classic Kajol is Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge – a film that stamped the pop culture image. ​For Punjabis on the big screen – it looks like.

Edited excerpts:

What is the origin of the story of Kahra?

The writers and creators of Gunjit Chopra and Diggi Sisodia came to me with this idea which was in its infancy during the pandemic. At first, I was a little skeptical about taking this up. On the face of it, it sounded like a crime detective drama and I was just coming out of Paatal Lok. I didn’t want to do the same kind of thing, because you’re always afraid of becoming a one-trick pony. But there was so much potential in exploring human relationships in the idea, that I felt it could go beyond being a mere investigative crime drama.

I realized that crime investigation doesn’t have to be the focal point of the show. This is a device that enables you to start a story and for people to follow in watching it, but it can be so much more than that. At Paatal Lok, the investigation was secondary to what he was trying to say about this moment in time and place in the country. Here, there was an opportunity to talk about the family as a unit of politics and the relationship as the focal point of the story. It all started with a line from Charles Bukowski, that says “Love is a dog from hell.” This was our starting point.

Punjab Yash Chopra was vibrant, romantic and happy. Punjab is just the opposite. How do you look at it? Especially since all of your stories are deeply rooted in the land in which they are set.

It is very important to me. I strongly believe that if you can take the place and time of a story and change it, if I’m telling the Kohrra story in Punjab from 2021-22, if I take the same story in Madhya Pradesh and do it at another time, then it’s not a story worth telling. Because a lot of these people, what these people are at this time comes from the land, the culture. Sure, I could adapt it but I can’t take the story and put it anywhere else because it just wouldn’t look right. The fact that there’s this NRI angle in the show, the attachment to the land, which is the basis of the feud between the families, the industrial side of it, the transportation side of it, it all comes into place.

For me, the place comes first before the idea, or at least it comes with the idea itself. Other than that, it’s a general idea for me and then I use color landscapes, which doesn’t work for me because it’s just a surface level look rather than telling something deeply rooted.

What will the DDLJ you made look like next?

I love DDLJ, it’s one of those movies we all grew up on. It was a good movie, I think it was a great movie at the time. I don’t know if I can write a straight love story. Love is more complicated than I feel.

What is your fascination with violence and exploring its consequences? All of your stories examine this in depth.

I’m trying to understand aggression, violence, where it comes from, I’m trying to understand its manifestations as an individual, a group, a mob, as a society. There may be a lot of violence in the things I do, but I’m really not for effect, where there is no violence because it’s cool. I’m not interested in ketchup-y cool violence. Tom and Jerry is a very violent show, but there are no sequels to violence, which is more serious to me.

You tell the kid who’s watching that you can take a frying pan and bang it on someone’s head. there will be You over a person’s head, but if you pet them, they’ll disappear. If you show violence for what it is, if you take a hammer and hit someone’s head, it becomes slick. I’d like to believe that there is something to be understood from that about violence. I am actually trying to learn it myself.