Ajay Devgn’s digital debut is built on a solid foundation — Rudra: The Edge of Darkness is an official adaptation of the popular British television series, Luther. For a crime thriller that focuses as much on the antagonists as it does on the quick-thinking protagonist, casting director Kavish Sinha (below) says roping in the right actors was crucial. “Casting for the villains was a big challenge,” says Sinha of the series that stars Esha Deol-Takhtani, Atul Kulkarni and Raashii Khanna, among others.

While Devgn and Deol were part of the project from the beginning, the casting director was given the responsibility of building the supporting cast. “When you have powerful actors on board, you have to cast an equally strong ensemble cast. Raashii auditioned with the director [Rajesh Mapuskar], along with the other cast members, including Atul, Ashwini [Kalsekar] and Ashish [Vidyarthi]. Rudra [focuses on] the villains as each episode [studies] a different crime and criminal. The [actors who played] criminals had to be as powerful performers as Ajay. Sameer Nair [of Applause Entertainment] and BBC were supportive about getting new actors,” says Sinha, who also worked on the casting of Rocket Boys.

The brief given by Mapuskar was simple: Even though the series was inspired by a British offering, Rudra had to be desi in its essence. Sinha says, “Rajesh wanted to capture the essence of Mumbai through the series. When I read Rudra episodes, I realised it isn’t similar to [Luther], [save for] his relationships with those around him. We have Indianised it for the audience here. So, I never asked any of the actors I auditioned to watch Luther.”