Sudip Sharma dissects his own cop universe of Pataal Lok, Kohrra: My work is a vehicle to understand my country better

Sudip Sharma, the brain behind shows like Pataal Lok and Mai, and films like NH10, Udta Punjab, Sonchiriya and Pari, is all set to strike back with a new series, Kohrra, on Netflix India. Slated to release on July 14, the slow-burn crime drama is set in Punjab, and stars Surinder Vicky and Barun Sobti as cops investigating a high-profile murder.

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In an exclusive interview, Sudip opens up on returning to the state seven years after Udta Punjab, setting of Pataal Lok Season 2, and whether he’s trying to build a pan-India cinematic universe of homegrown thrillers. Excerpts:

We’ve seen a fair share of cop dramas recently, most notable being Dahaad, where the personal lives of the police officers get intertwined with the case they’re investigating. After Pataal Lok, Kohrra is the second show on those lines. What’s this fascination with cops and their existential crises?

They’re such fascinating characters sitting on the cusp of crime and civilization. They’re dealing with these very brutal crimes day in and day out, but also going back to their regular lives. They’re as much a regular part of society as a banker or a school teacher. But what they’re dealing with every day at work can be so violent, so brutal, so damaging. The repercussions of that on their families and personal lives is actually a very fascinating world to explore. Although I’ve done it a couple of times now, I don’t think I fully understand what it truly means to be a watchman of society and the repercussions of your job on your psyche and interpersonal relationships. It’s so fascinating that I get drawn back to it.

Pataal Lok was set in Delhi, a land you’re familiar with. Did writing the screenplay of Udta Punjab (2016) help you to locate the story of Kohrra in the state?

It did help. With Udta, I’d done extensive research and spent a lot of time in Punjab during the writing and making. Plus, Gunjit Chopra, who’s one of the co-writers and co-creators of the show, is an expert. He’s spent a lot of time making documentaries in Punjab so he helped a lot with the authenticity of the milieu through his presence in the writing room.

Kohrra is tonally very different from Pataal Lok. The latter was edgier and pacier, whereas the former is meditative and reflective, a slow burn like your 2019 script Sonchiriya. Why was this tone crucial in the show?

The tone actually came from the nature of the story itself. We were clear from Day 1 that we didn’t want it to be a standard police procedural. We didn’t want it to be purely an investigative drama which runs on plot. We wanted to explore interpersonal relationships and different facets of love through this show. And that necessarily meant that we had to take a slightly inward-looking tone and a slightly nuanced approach to storytelling. That became the guide when even when we were filming.

The title Kohrra refers to not only the suspense in the storytelling, but also the helplessness in the characters’ relationships. How did you build this feeling into the visuals of the narrative?

Kohrra literally means fog, that blocks our view from seeing the reality. Then it also refers to the fog present in our relationships, in love, in human interactions that may prevent us from seeing the truth that’s just around the corner, just a few metres away. One thing was to try and shoot in winters to get the cold, dry vibe we needed. A lot of it was also created via VFX. That was the physical part of it. Then, in relationships. If you look at Balbir’s (Surinder Vicky) house, you’ll always see Balbir and Nimrat (Harleen Sethi) through a door between them. They’re not present in the same room unless they’re fighting. These were some of the visual devices we used while filming to create that sense of alienation.

Surinder Vicky cut such a fine portrait of a man battling existential angst in Ivan Ayr’s Meel Patthar (2020). Was that how he got your attention?

Surinder Vicky had a small part in Udta Punjab. A pretty small part, actually. He was also in Pataal Lok. He played the rapist of Chaaku’s mother in Punjab in Episode 3. He had only one scene there, but I knew I wanted to work with him because he’s such a brilliant actor. I always had him in mind while writing Kohrra, which was in 2020. Meel Patthar and CAT hadn’t come out then.

Barun Sobti is having his moment in long-form thrillers, with shows like Asur. Why did you zero in on him for Kohrra?

There’s an understated charm to him. The exact word we were discussing is that he has a certain haramipana, a certain impishness in Barun, that even when he’s doing something nasty, there’s a certain likeable quality. Not a lot of actors have that. Even when he’s slapping people around or being physically violent, there’s surprisingly a cuteness to him, which is what makes it likeable.

My observation is that you’re building this pan-India cinematic universe of lawlessness, of thrillers, with NH10 (2015) and Pataal Lok in Delhi-NCR, Pari (2018) in West Bengal, Sonchiriya in Chambal, and Udta Punjab and Kohrra in Punjab. Which state has gotten your attention next?

Oh god. No, I’m not sitting in front of a map of India with a dartboard in my head, thinking of this is where I want to go next. But sometimes, you read something and that draws you to that land. India is such a complex country that there’s so much disparity between different regions. You can be in Delhi and not know anything about Punjab or Haryana, which are only a few hundreds of kilometres away. For me, my work is the vehicle to understand the country I inhabit. The reason behind telling a story about a particular place is acknowledging that I don’t know much about this phenomenon, this culture or subculture and I’d get to know more about this fascinating place through my work. It really starts from there. I honestly don’t know where we’re going next, but I hope it’ll be really fascinating.

I went back to Punjab after Udta because Udta only dealt with one aspect of Punjab, which is the epidemic of drug use that was very prevalent at that time. But with Kohrra, I wanted to explore other parts of Punjab that I couldn’t with Udta. On the other hand, with Pataal Lok Season 2, we go to the northeast part of the country. We shot it in Nagaland. Nothing ever has been shot there. We’ve not had any story come out of there before. It’s really a mix of wanting to go to a new place, or go back to a place which you feel there’s more inside the well that you want to draw from.

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