One look at her portrayal of the tough-talking, slap-happy cop in Aranyak, and it’s evident that Raveena Tandon’s acting hasn’t lost its sheen. She ably led the cast of the Netflix crime thriller that revolved around the murder of a tourist in the fictional town of Sironah. While the series, in its final moments, hinted at a possible second instalment, makers Rohan Sippy and Siddharth Roy Kapur have since confirmed that the thriller will return for another season.

Tandon says that right from the beginning, the idea was to develop it as a multi-season affair. “There are so many questions that remain unanswered in the first season. We introduced a character called Rabbit in the end. The relationship between him and Kasturi [her character] has to be explained. We also have to [explore the track of] the half-man, half-leopard creature. People want to know what will happen further. There were many questions left unanswered between Angad [Parambrata Chatterjee’s character] and Kasturi’s relationship too.”

The next season of Vinay Waikul’s directorial venture will focus as much on the secrets of the sleepy town as it will on Tandon’s character, who struggles to find a balance between work and family life. “The show gives the message that families need to rally around their women and help them achieve their dreams. I must give credit to the writers [Rohan Sippy and Charudutt Acharya] for understanding what women go through. As the first season progresses, you see different layers to Kasturi. She starts talking like Angad; she becomes softer while he becomes more aggressive.”

From potboilers like Mohra (1994) to social dramas like Daman (2001), and finally, Aranyak, Tandon has come a long way. Assessing her career, she says, “It has been a conscious effort to do varied roles and not [box] myself. Whenever I got the chance to do something different, it worked well for me.”