Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; August 28, 2018)

Much like it does for comedy sitcoms, improvisational work contributed immensely to the screenplay of The Trip 2, which marks Amyra Dastur’s foray into the digital space. So much so that a fair share of the dialogues that will be heard in the show was the brainwave of Dastur and co-star Mallika Dua, both of who could tickle the funny bone owing to the bond they shared off screen.

Dastur, who will be credited as writer along with Dua, tells mid-day, “Mallika’s character, is related to that of mine. Inevitably, our scenes needed us to feed off each others’ dialogues. Whenever we’d rehearse along with Sonam [Nair, director and co-writer], we’d improvise and add our own lines. The unit kept cracking up, so Sonam decided to retain them in the series.”

Working with the all-female crew in Pondicherry was a delightful experience, she says. “Since none of us knew Tamil, communicating with the locals resulted in hilarious situations.”