Amid post-production on season two, The Family Man director says part three will reflect the post-COVID-19 pandemic world
Uma Ramasubramanian (MID-DAY; May 20, 2020)

The irony of culminating a gritty drama on a cliffhanger, only to then have its forthcoming season interrupted by a long-drawn pandemic, isn't lost on The Family Man co-director Raj Nidimoru. "We had a release-strategy planned for this year," he says of what could have been of the Manoj Bajpayee-fronted web series' second season.

Though shooting has been completed, an elaborate post-production leg is in the pipeline. "It takes four months to complete processes like sound [mixing], music creation, and VFX work. Also, the show must be readied for airing in various countries, as will be the case with a web series. This involves processes like addition of subtitles. We need to see how many studios will function, and if there will be some relaxations [in lockdown measures] so that we can use them."

In the interim, he is pulling out all stops to wrap up processes that can be completed from home, to meet a year-end release. "It took us a few days to edit it, but, we established a working-process between DK [Krishna DK, co-director], the editor, and myself, and kept exchanging files," he says, lamenting the unproductive hours spent in comprehending how to use technology to exchange files and communicate.

Attribute it to the flair with which they brought to life the 10-episode series on a middle-class man who secretly works as an intelligence officer, but Nidimoru particularly piques curiosity when he confirms that goings-on amid the pandemic will serve as fodder for season three. "Part three is being conceptualised. The world will be different [when the pandemic ends]. Since we want season three to be relevant, we are trying to comprehend [plots that] would make sense in a post-COVID world. Different countries are behaving differently. If our show will be set in some of them, we ought to take cognisance of how they behave and manage [themselves], whether they emerge as leaders, or see economic growth." Socio-political aspects aside, he says the show will also reflect how humans evolve after growing introspective in isolation.