Hansal Mehta is a filmmaker who pursues stories over stars. The director of the critically acclaimed Netflix series Scoop claims there was no pressure to cast a star in the just-launched project. Hansal Mehta and co-writer of Thappad, Mrunmayee Lagoo, are the creators of Scoop, which was inspired by Jigna Vora’s autobiographical book Behind The Bars In Byculla: My Days in Prison. The series’ leading lady, Karishma Tanna, plays the ambitious crime reporter Jagruti Pathak, who turns out to be a murder suspect.
Mehta was asked in an interview if he felt any pressure to mount Scoop because he had just finished a tremendously popular series called Scam: 1992. The director responded that he felt no such pressure. “I don’t think we fought about the choice. Karishma or Harman. We spoke about it and it happened. There was no pressure as such. One of the reasons why the Scam worked was because we took an actor nobody knew. So the character became bigger than the person playing it. I am not denying the value of a star, but in certain stories, the character becomes the star.
“Karishma was striking. In her audition, there was this hustle. She had a very arresting presence, she looked wonderful on-screen. There was something about her, there was a hunger. So, somehow Jagruti’s hunger and Karishma’s hunger juxtaposed. I saw that. It has always been an instinctive thing. I enjoy casting as much as I enjoy shooting,” he added.
In an earlier interview, Karishma Tanna had opened up about resonating with her character’s ambition as she felt she was going through “hunger” to prove herself as an actor and hustling for it. “I will do everything I can… Being in the industry for so long and still being relevant is a big thing. I didn’t realize until Scoop’s writer Mrunmayee Lagoo noted. I continuously hustled my way. There are ups and downs in every actor’s life, but I have tried to be relevant in the industry. That, ‘Hey, I am here! I still have not got what I deserve,’” Tanna had said.