He set out to be a director , but fell in love with writing. Karan Vyas, who has previously worked on Made in China, Wrong Side Raju, Sameer, and Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, penned dialogues for the recent Netflix series, 'Scoop', which is inspired by Jigna Vora’s book, Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison.

Not having read the book, Vyas says that writing for the Hansal Mehta-directed venture “was difficult”. “Mrunmayee [Lagoo, writer] and Hansal Mehta clearly told me not to read the book. I knew about Jigna Vora; I had done extensive research on her, and there was a lot of material on [the case] in the media. To understand her vocabulary, mannerisms, and emotions, I had watched her interviews too,” says the writer, adding that when a script comes to him in English, it is tricky to add emotions to it. 

“Sometimes, the English language has the tendency to be very straight-forward; it tends to lack emotional depth, especially when it comes to a show like Scoop. It was important to show the dynamics of an authentic Gujarati household. Getting the nana, motta papa, and the [other members] was vital. In fact, that was the first brief I got. It was the biggest victory to get the household of Jagruti Pathak [played by Karishma Tanna] right and as close to a Gujarati family in Mumbai.”

For a series centred on a journalist, it was also imperative to get the journalism jargon correct. Vyas credits former journalist Ankur Pathak, who was part of the team, for his input.

“In the days of the Internet, you can get everything easily. While it will tell you the jargon, when to use it is something only a journalist would know. For that, we had Ankur to help out with,” says  the writer, who is now looking forward to the second edition of Scam set to air “sometime in July or August.”