Seen enough portrayal of noble, evil women: Narain

DIRECTOR Ruchi Narayan says her upcoming show ‘Hundred’ is an action comedy that dwells on the fun side of two women thrown together by circumstances.

Ruchi believes a lot of the content on OTT platform is of serious nature whereas she wanted to entertain viewers by showing the fun side of women, who are often portrayed as either good or evil.

‘As avid consumers of content on OTT, we felt that everything is very serious and intense. We wanted people to have a chance to lighten up, go on a random ride without taking anything too seriously,’ Ruchi told in an interview.

‘As a woman, I really wanted to show women as they are even in the face of constant opposition, expectation and judgement. Women are layered, complicated and fun. I’ve had enough of seeing the ‘noble’ portrayal of women or the completely evil scheming side,’ she added.

Rinku Rajguru of ‘Sairat’ fame and Lara Dutta headline the new Disney+Hotstar series, which is directed by Ruchi, Ashutosh Shah and Taher Shabbir.

Ruchi said she is a big fan of Marathi cinema and saw ‘Sairat’ first day first show and she was charmed by Rinku’s performance.

When she began writing ‘Hundred’, she only had Rajguru in mind for the character of Netra Patil, a young woman forced to re-evaluate her life when she finds out that she is terminally ill and has only 100 days to live.

The director said she chose Dutta to play ACP Saumya Shukla as she was apt for the role.

‘We wrote the character for her (Rinku) and we never had a second choice. Once the show was written, I felt Lara would be the best cast (as the cop).

‘The character’s conflict is that she gets pigeon-holed because she is a good looking woman but there’s much more to her than her looks or the fact that she’s a woman. She has many layers, good and bad. Lara’s tongue-in-cheek performance will be a revelation for all.’

The series is an action comedy as Ruchi didn’t want to take anything ‘too seriously’.

‘So keeping the pace and story and constantly breaking it with scenes and moments of lightness, irreverence and humour was the creative challenge,’ she added.