Some shows like School of Lies are not meant to be binged, but savoured. Ishani Banerjee, who wrote it with creator-director Avinash Arun, says the idea was to tell a multi-dimensional story of violence. 

“Avinash had passed on a few news articles to me. When I finished reading them, I told him we should [narrate the story] from the perpetrator’s point of view. He wanted to do a meditative piece on violence, look at the cyclical nature of abuse and trauma,” says the co-creator and writer, who started her run in the movies with Aligarh (2015).

The Disney+ Hotstar mystery drama, led by Nimrat Kaur, follows the case of a 12-year-old boy who has gone missing from a boarding school. Banerjee is confident that the series, despite being unlike the fast-paced whodunits, will find its audience and may even open the doors for slow-burn shows in India. “School of Lies is a slow-burn show. It is not to be determined by the number of first-week views,” she states, insisting that writers, creators and streamers must together use the OTT boom to tell richer stories.

“Today, when OTT has given us the opportunity, it’s a disservice to writing if you aren’t deep-diving. If 49 out of 50 shows are catering to a certain kind of storytelling, then at least one should say something different.”

Banerjee says that the onus is also on OTT platforms to not succumb to the rat race, and instead give writers the chance to tell diverse stories.

“It’s not easy to get a School Of Lies made. There is a demand-supply cycle. We are constantly looking at which OTT show has got the maximum views. [These conversations] have been happening with regard to films and their box-office numbers. If you are still stuck in that rut on OTT, what’s the difference? The onus lies as much on the writers as on producers and platforms [to usher in change].”

Nimrat Kaur is not new to long-format storytelling, having featured in The Test Case (2017), Wayward Pines (2016), and the award-winning series, Homeland. Headlining her latest web series, School Of Lies, was an easy decision. For the actor, the draw was collaborating with director Avinash Arun.

“I had always wanted to work with Avinash. I was curious to know what he would make after Killa [2014] and Paatal Lok [2020]. I have done a lot of long-format series abroad, but in India, I found myself more drawn to films. But this story was a game-changer. I couldn’t have gone ahead knowing I let this pass,” she smiles.

In the Disney+ Hotstar offering, Kaur plays a student counsellor trying to get to the bottom of a child’s mysterious disappearance from the boarding school. She found the perfect inspiration in her sister Rubina.

“My sister was formerly a student counsellor. I had observed her closely for many years. The ability to connect with a child and to think like them is the most crucial part of the job.”

It seems Kaur has made a conscious choice to do more work in India. After 'Dasvi' last year, the actor has a busy 2023 with School Of Lies, Happy Teachers’ Day, and Sky Force with Akshay Kumar. “It’s not a calculated move at all. I’m an emotional person who decides on projects that make it to my heart. I don’t care if it’s made in Iran, India or Europe. The question is — is it something I’d like to watch? If it is, I will chase it.”

A prime example is the upcoming second season of the Apple TV+ series, Foundation, in which she features in episodes one and six. “I got to work with Jared Harris, one of my all-time favourite actors. It was the most educating experience of my career. It was an honour to be a small part of this big franchise.”

Having started out with music videos, Kaur graduated to movies and web shows, emerging as a dependable actor over the years.

Nearing the two-decade mark in the industry, she reflects, “I haven’t cracked the code [to success]. What takes you forward is remaining curious, not getting bored and never allowing yourself to stagnate.”

As a child, Avinash Arun used to wonder about the life of kids in a boarding school, especially because he never studied in one. Years later, he got an opportunity to revisit his curiosity during a film’s shoot, which in turn gave birth to his upcoming series, School Of Lies.

“When I went to shoot a film in the Himalayas, I experienced the vibe of a boarding school from an outsider’s perspective and found it cinematically exciting,” says the director.

One of the questions that struck Arun was how many children attended such institutes of their own free will. It forms the bedrock of the Disney+ Hotstar thriller — starring Nimrat Kaur, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan and Aamir Bashir — that studies how such institutions demand discipline, and its consequences on children.

“One has to leave his home and family to step into another world, and is told to adjust to the environment. You have to learn, study, and discipline yourself. I wanted to see how it affects a child’s psyche. You can call a boarding school a way of education, or what I used to call as a child — ‘a jail’. You can call it freedom or confinement, depending on your perception,” states Arun, who is known for helming Killa (2015) and Paatal Lok (2020).

With School Of Lies, the director doesn’t intend to generalize the experience of boarding schools. Instead, the thriller follows a group of kids whose lives are upended when their classmate goes missing. “It’s a unique story about three-four kids who come [into a world] that will make or break them.”