Sudip Sharma: ‘Paatal Lok’ investigates the heart of a nation while ‘Kohrra’ is a relationship drama

Sudip Sharma along with actors Mona Singh and Barun Sobti speak about the season 2 of Kohrra, Mona’s experience of going through intense workshops, Barun’s performance coming from his faith in the writing, how Sudip makes a restrained show amid declining attention spans and more

Mist spreads again to the stingy winters of Punjab as Netflix’s much acclaimed police procedural, Kohrra returns for its sophomore season. It is another chance for writer-director Sudip Sharma to delve into the complexities of Northern India, as he has been doing since the nerve-wracking survival thriller, NH10 (2015). There is an ease with which Sudip places his characters in the cultural milieu; his writing populates with a lived-in viscerality, whether it is the cyclical nature of violence that he explored in Paatal Lok’s first season, or the personal tragedies slipping in the investigation in Kohrra.

Primarily a screenwriter, Sudip takes on multiple responsibilities in Kohrra’s second outing as he is also the co-director, co-creator and co-producer. He carries a wave of sincerity around, listening intently as I ask him what these different roles mean to him. His response comes just as nonchalantly. “It is all an extension of the same thing,” he says, inviting a flurry of laughter across the chairs from actors Barun Sobti and Mona Singh.

Sudip Sharma talking with Barun Sobti and Mona Singh on the sets of ‘Kohrra’ Season 2 | Photo Credit: Netflix

Sudip explains that everything begins at the writing stage for him. “Being a showrunner came as a by-product of writing, as I am already deeply involved with the story and would be the right person to execute it. Similarly, I took up directing with that aim of wanting to tell my stories my way,” he says.

This second season comes just a year after that of Paatal Lok, which is also essentially another police procedural coming from the mind of Sudip. How does he separate the two in his head without letting elements from one entering another? The writer-creator is quick to say that it has never happened. “For me, they are tonally different worlds. Paatal Lok is an investigation into the heart of a nation while Kohrra is like a character study which is a lot more personal. I see Kohrra more as a relationship drama,” says Sudip.

The last season of Paatal Lok extended the story of Hathriram Chaudhary (Jaideep Ahlawat) into a convincing arc. There was an attempt at finding novelty in the narrative while operating in a similar zone. A glimpse of that reinvention is seen even in the new season of Kohrra, as it touches familiar terrain with a renowned rigour. Sudip feels that mounting the follow-up is tougher and easier in equal measures.