Actor Karisma Kapoor is back to leading a project after a long gap, playing cop Rita Brown in her new web series Brown. For the 51-year-old, taking charge of a project still brings excitement.

“For every actor, whether you are leading a show or have two scenes, you treat it like a child, your baby. There’s more excitement than nervousness or jitters. We have to try to put our best foot forward, and then it’s up to the audience,” she tells us.

In the show, Kapoor plays a uniformed officer whose personal and professional worlds are in conflict. “Rita Brown is so different in her personal space, and coming into her professional space, it becomes entirely different because she’s someone who has left the force and doesn’t want to continue but she’s brought back into this case,” she shares, adding, “She’s constantly trying to get a grip on everything.”

While Brown marks her entry into an intense drama space, Kapoor says she misses the light-hearted films Bollywood was once known for. “That time, the audience used to go into the cinema to forget everything that was going on in their daily lives, and just come there and laugh with their families, with pure entertainment. That era was an amazing time, and I wish more films like that were made today. I wish there were more romcoms made today,” she says.

The series also brings veteran actor Helen back to screen after over a decade. Kapoor says working with her felt familiar. “Helen aunty is someone whom I have known personally as well, and she has worked with my mum too… she’s like a grandmom. There’s a family connect and she has seen me grow up,” she says.

Picture this: Karisma Kapoor was shooting for a brand commercial four years ago, when the makers of Brown approached her to front the series. The actor’s first reaction? A hard no. Kapoor recalled, “I vehemently said no to Brown. I’m not in the rat race; I’m in my own lane, working at my own pace. So, when the team at Zee came to me, I said, ‘Going to Kolkata for 50 days is out of the question!’”

So, what changed her mind about the Abhinay Deo-directed crime thriller? Persuasion. “The lady [from Zee] asked for 20 minutes. I refused as the [brand] shoot was going on. She asked to meet me after two days. Today, I’m so happy I took that meeting, because when I heard the script of Brown, I couldn’t say no to playing Rita Brown,” said the actor, who plays a depressed, alcoholic cop investigating a series of murders in Kolkata. Certainly a dramatically different role from the ones Kapoor began with, over 30 years ago.

When she forayed into films, masala fares that relied on stardom, song-and-dance, and escapism were the norm — something that is viewed as easy today, when author-backed roles and realistic stories dominate the landscape. But she doesn’t share the opinion.

“The most difficult thing is to do comedy. You can pull off an intense scene, but doing comedy is tougher,” asserted the actor.

She further batted for mainstream movies, saying, “My first big award was for Raja Hindustani [1996], an out-and-out [mainstream] film. So, as an actor, just do your best and it will be appreciated.”

In Abhinay Deo’s world of imagination, the mythological story of Savitri blends with the fictional story of a Russell Crowe film. The result is his latest release, Savi. Starring Anil Kapoor, Harshvardhan Rane and Divya Khossla Kumar, the thriller—that sees the protagonist plot her husband’s escape from prison—is a modern take on the story of Savitri and Satyavan.

“There is something powerful in the mythological story of a woman who brought her husband back from the jaws of death. The challenge was to match up to the magic and strength of the original story,” says the director.

Savi is inspired by Crowe’s jailbreak thriller, The Next Three Days (2010), which was in turn a remake of the French film, Pour Elle (2008). But the director and his team “turned the screenplay on its head.” 

“We bought the rights. Russell Crowe is an out-and-out action hero, but the gender change added layers to the story. The Indian ethos gave it a cultural grip. The motivations changed as soon as we made the central character a woman.”

Deo broke into Hindi cinema in 2011 with the black comedy, Delhi Belly. Now, with its leading man Imran Khan teasing a return to Bollywood, has he considered making a sequel to Delhi Belly? “I have thought of a sequel every week for the past 10 years. As much as we love the film, we also know how meticulously it was made. Under the garb of comedy and [expletives], we had a sharp movie. To put all those factors together and make a movie that is relevant today will take time. In some time, we hope to put pen to paper and see where it takes us.”

For now, he is looking forward to his OTT debut, Brown, which was the only Indian show at the 2023 Berlin Series Market Selects platform. Led by Karisma Kapoor, the series revolves around a world-weary detective in the Kolkata police force, who is tasked with investigating the murder of a young woman from a prominent family, while battling her past. “We are hoping to release it in about three months; it’s in the last leg of post-production.”

Abhinay Deo may have jumped on the OTT bandwagon only now, but he is off to a winning start. The director’s maiden web series, Brown, premièred at the Berlinale Series Market Selects last week. Even as he takes baby steps in digital entertainment with the Karisma Kapoor-starrer, he rues that the Indian OTT scene may not be living up to the promise it showed in its inception.

Deo says while long-format storytelling allows a director to explore stories that might not find takers on the big screen, many content creators have begun to follow the restrictive structures of theatrical business.

“We are in a good and a bad place. It’s good because the format allows us to do so much more. But at the same time, [OTT content] has started getting into a rut. Once upon a time, it was an [avenue] where we could have made great cinema. But now, suddenly, we are [being dominated] by the need for big numbers. So, we need to [cast] big actors in the projects. Unfortunately, we are moving into the same template [as theatrical movies]. As OTT evolves further, hopefully, it will get to a better place,” says the filmmaker.

What’s next after Brown? A sequel to Delhi Belly (2011), perhaps? Fans have constantly hoped for a second instalment, but the director has stayed away from revisiting the black comedy.

Deo reasons, “From the day Delhi Belly released to today, I am asked about a sequel. The way I make films is organic; I believe [a fitting story] has to come to me.”

Abhinay Deo’s latest web show, Brown, featuring actor Karisma Kapoor, has been included in Berlinale Series Market Selects section of the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival. While the filmmaker admits that such honours add gravitas to a director’s filmography, they aren’t the be-all and end-all. 

“Given the kind of importance Berlinale holds in the festival circuit, it definitely adds weight. Making it to an event that’s known for the honesty with which they run the festival and choose films from across the world certainly adds value to your filmography. Having said that, it does not define a filmmaker. What defines us is what we create. When our work gets appreciated nationally and internationally, it feels great. Film festivals are a feather in the cap, not the cap itself,” says Deo.

Brown happens to be the Blackmail (2018) and Delly Belly (2011) director’s first web series. Talking about it, Deo goes on to talk about another project, 24, which he did with actor Anil Kapoor.

“24 was like a web series, but it aired on TV as there was no OTT in our country back then (in 2013). But conceptually, 24 was my first web series. It had limited number of episodes, was made on a high budget and was well-thought-out. In that sense, Brown is my second web project. But purely from the OTT point of view, it is my first,” he ends.

Director Abhinay Deo couldn’t have imagined starting the year on a better note. His maiden web series Brown, led by Karisma Kapoor has been included in the Berlinale Series Market Selects 2023 that will take place between February 20 and 22.

Deo who is thrilled with the selection, enthuses “It’s an honour for me that my upcoming series Brown has been chosen to be showcased at the Berlinale Series Market Selects, one of the 16 shows chosen from across the world. The entire cast and crew has worked tremendously hard for the series and I’m glad that India debuts at the Berlinale film festival with this series.”

The filmmaker adds, “The list of [the selected] series is incredible. One of them is the new show from the makers of Euphoria.” Deo's Brown is based on Abheek Barua’s novel City of Death, and sees Kapoor as a cop investigating a high-profile murder case in Kolkata.

As much as she was gripped by the subject, Kapoor was initially skeptical about fronting such a dark show. “Karisma has always been a glamorous actress and in this series she has done a complete 180 degrees flip to portray a realistic character and has gotten into the skin of the character,” says Deo.

The filmmaker is currently working on a slate of feature films and web series under his production house, RDP Pulp Fiction Entertainment, with Neeta Shah.

It’s been more than a decade since Abhinay Deo gave us the cult hit, Delhi Belly. Since then, the ad filmmaker has been experimenting with genres as diverse as black comedy (Blackmail) and spy thrillers (Force 2), before he got Karisma Kapoor, Helen, Soni Razdan, Jisshu U Sengupta and Surya Sharma in a casting coup of sorts for Brown, a crime drama set in the underbelly of Kolkata.

In between experiencing his first Norwester on the banks of the Hooghly and shooting in the skinny alleys of the city, Abhinay settled down for a free-wheeling chat with us. Excerpts:

We got on to this project a year and a half back. It is a lovely, intense and interesting idea and we decided to put together the story line, get the actors on board and start filming and see where it goes. This story does not have a beginning, middle and end — but it’s a fantastically written character study about broken people in a broken system with all their nuances. It talks about how people are not black and white as generally portrayed in our cinema. It’s a very interesting milieu for me to explore, and that’s where Kolkata comes in as a character in the film.

As a filmmaker, I hate to run with clichés. Our story is about the underbelly of the city and its different layers — not so much the part which the aam janta knows. In the 10 days that we have been shooting there, we have not shot a single monument or tourist spot in the city. That’s how we intend to keep it. We are trying to capture the different textures of Kolkata — from the rich and big Marwari families to the smallest boatman — and the unhurried pace at which everything moves.

Mare Of Easttown is a great example, but we are also about those dark, intense and jovial vignettes of the Anglo Indians, Biharis, Marwaris, bhodrolok Bengalis — communities that actually bring their cultures into the city and carry the city with them at the same time. The whodunit part is a thread that binds these people together and gives us an opportunity to talk about where they come from, how broken and ‘baggaged’ they are.

I think the new platforms have finally given us an opportunity to tell stories that are not bound by the star system. Imagine trying to do a character study 10 years back! Who would buy that? It is high time we went beyond the 20 people we can count on our fingertips, who you had to approach if you wanted anything to see the light of day. If things did not work out, you tried to get together some people from NSD and show your film on 10 screens.

We had great filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen and Satyajit Ray, making documentaries and features with intense character studies. But their work got branded as parallel cinema instead. Imagine what would have happened if they had access to the new mediums and platforms that we do today!

These lines are blurred, the star system is being dismantled. While we have not come to terms with it yet, the process has started. You simply cannot take a big actor and make it work. People have access to so much that they would rather watch something else than any mediocre stuff that comes their way.

I think for many of these ’90s actors, initially there’s a sense of shock because of the change that is happening. After that comes the requirement of involvement, which is intense and immense. Earlier films were made differently; your story was written on the sets. Now it is about adapting to a very different way of life and delivering to the brief. And hats off to the way they are reinventing themselves. Initially, we were a bit skeptical and so was Karisma. She was facing the camera after a long time after all. But she has been delivering, and how! In fact, she gets more and more surprised about herself every day and we pat ourselves on our back a little harder for having stuck to our gut feeling about casting her in the project.

Helen is 80-plus, comes from a completely different era. We had a tough scene where she was supposed to hold her own in a room with many people. We were wondering how it would pan out. But Helen not only held her own, but was spectacular in the way she made her presence felt. But more than the first day of shoot she had a child-like fascination about the very idea of reading from a script — apparently it was her first time! But how absolutely professional she has been and so hard working. In fact, everyone from Soni Razdan to Jisshu to Surya, the young actors from Bengal and Mumbai — for me, it is fun to be able to bring the experience that the seasoned actors bring with them and combine it with contemporary filmmaking style and try to make something out of it.

Doosra is part fiction-part documentary about Indian cricket and a young girl. I have pushed my creative boundaries in a completely different direction with the film. Unfortunately, many of the festivals, where we wanted to take the film, did not know how to slot it. And then Covid also delayed the process. But it is too poignant and special a story not to be told and I hope the audiences will be able to see it soon.

Earlier this week, we told you that yesteryear actress Helen is making a comeback with a crime drama. Now, Karisma Kapoor is in Kolkata to shoot for the Abhinay Deo-directorial. The actress is staying at a luxury heritage property on the city’s outskirts. Actor Surya Sharma, who is also part of the cast, is staying at the same property.

Helen will also be coming to Kolkata for the shoot, said a source, revealing that the team will be staying in the city for a month. A part of the shoot will take place in north Kolkata as well.

A source close to the team told us, “Karisma Kapoor is a lovely, young-hearted, amicable person with no starry air. She is busy shooting from morning to night, and she loves the shoot location.”

A neo-noir crime drama, the OTT series titled Brown — The First Case is based on Abheek Barua’s book, City Of Death, and went on the floors recently.

Meanwhile, younger sister Kareena Kapoor Khan will also be shooting for an OTT project directed by Sujoy Ghosh in West Bengal’s Lava for the next seven-eight days. On Wednesday, Kareena took to Instagram and shared a photo from the film’s set in Kalimpong district. “Day 1-Kalimpong. . . Devotion of suspect X,” she wrote in the caption.

“I have never felt distanced from cinema,” says the legendary Helen, who shimmied a trail on the silver screen with her sassy and iconic dance moves for years. Boasting of a career that spans the 1950s to the 1980s, the elusive and gorgeous 83-year-old is all set to return to face the arc lights with Brown.

The Abhinay Deo-directorial, a neo-noir crime drama (based on the book City Of Death by Abheek Barua) which recently went on the floors, will also feature Karisma Kapoor. The yesteryear actress says, “Crime dramas are riveting to watch these days because each story is treated so differently. No two crime drama series are alike. Also, it is not a genre that I have dabbled in earlier, so, I am really looking forward to it. In fact, I am happy that I am being offered meaningful roles by brilliant filmmakers and creators. The character in Brown is truly me. I identified with the way she leads her life and it prompted me to agree immediately. Besides, Abhinay knows exactly what he wants from every actor and that put me at ease. I am truly enjoying being back on sets.”

Helen admits to feeling nervous about returning to the screen. She says, “My family and I live and breathe cinema. But I was nervous about the changes I’d find after returning on set after so many years. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the changes that have taken place have been good. In our time, table-reads, workshops, etc were things that only happened in Hollywood. All of these things had not reached us back then. Now it’s a fascinating way to work, where you come together and meet your co-actors. The energy in the room is enthralling.”

While her outings in Bollywood have been sporadic in recent times, she is still remembered for her cameo appearance as Salman Khan’s mother in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999). Ask her about her reasons for staying away from showbiz and she replies, “Nothing exciting came my way.” Is there any project on cards with Salman? “As of now, nothing,” she replies.

Helen is considered as one of Bollywood’s finest dancers and some of her songs are classics, even remixed several times over. This is evident even on current dance reality shows, where her songs are some of the most popular numbers among the contestants. What’s surprising is that she has never appeared as a celebrity judge on any of these shows. And she has no plans to change that even in the future, “I won’t be able to dedicate the time required by reality shows,” she explains.

However, the veteran actress is all praise for the new generation of dancers. “Times have changed. I see that the dancers today are a dedicated lot. They work really hard to make each dance a spectacle,” she says.