We have not held back: Sudip Sharma, Jaideep Ahlawat on ‘Paatal Lok’ Season 2

Will the new season of ‘Paatal Lok’, set in Nagaland and releasing in a post-’Tandav’ streaming world, pack the same firepower as before? Creator Sudip Sharma and lead Jaideep Ahlawat sound off

Paatal Lok was a landmark show of the first wave of Indian streaming. A violent, many-splendoured police thriller, it debuted during the pandemic and blew up instantly, marrying the allure of binge television to blistering social critique. Along with Sacred Games, it was among a handful of titles that got away—streaming platforms, hounded by FIRs and summons, soon bowed to self-censorship.

After a puzzlingly long gap, the returning season of Paatal Lok premieres on January 17 on Prime Video. This time, the series has swerved in a new direction: northeast India. Jaideep Ahlawat returns as Hathiram Chaudhary, the small-time Delhi cop who, to invoke a Hanumankind lyric, got “rollin’ through the city with the big dawgs”. Directed by Avinash Arun, the new season has been shot in Nagaland, Delhi and parts of North Bengal. The Hindu spoke to Jaideep and creator Sudip Sharma about what the road holds. Excerpts...

Sudip Sharma: There were multiple reasons. First off, we wanted to get it right. We did not just want to milk the success of the first season. Then there were the external reasons — COVID first wave, second wave. Then all of us got busy with other commitments. It was a long process of regrouping and matching our dates.

Jaideep Ahlawat: Thank you for noticing that. It’s there because of what he went through in the first season. Hathiram feels lucky to know about the world and the plotting behind it. Truth gives you power. He is still sitting in the same chair in the same thana but he knows his own worth better.

SS: All through the first season, we thought that Hathiram desperately wanted to prove to the world—to his own son, his superiors, his colleagues—that he was capable. What he was really trying to do was prove to himself. By the end of it, the only person he could prove to was himself. Nobody else believed him, nobody else got it, and it didn’t matter.

JA: Yes, he is more at peace this season.

SS: It is an integral part of the second season. For me, it has always been one of the core founding relationships of the show. Hathiram and Ansari represent two ways of operating and two ways of being, in the police force. They have different working styles but the same objective. Ansari being more educated — now an IPS officer — is taking the elevator while Hathiram is taking the staircase. They are going to reach the same spot.