Shriya Pilgaonkar and Varun Mitra starrer legal drama Guilty Minds released on Amazon Prime Video this weekend. The show is a 10-episode series that sees Shriya as Public Interest Litigation lawyer Kashaf Quaze and Varun as Deepak Rana who portrays a corporate lawyer. All the ten episodes of the show are different cases related to different cases. The series also features performances by senior actors like Satish Kaushik, Shakti Kapoor and Kulbhushan Kharbanda. In a conversation with News18.com, Guilty Minds’ director Shefali Bhushan spoke about how she managed to get the casting right.
Speaking about collecting an ensemble star cast and directing them in the series, Shefali said, “I feel privileged and very grateful to have been able to work with not only with very talented actors across the board but such senior actors. They have been part of the industry for decades together and are legends in their own right, and for me, it was a little daunting. I was not sure if they will give me the kind of space that I require as a director, to be able to convey my vision to them, to be able to mould them into the character. But hats off to them, each and every one of them has been completely cooperative."
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“They have surrendered completely to the character and my vision. They always asked me if the shot was okay. ‘What do you want? How are you seeing it?’ And it put me at ease immediately. And then of course it becomes a two-way street. They also appreciate that you are speaking your mind. And if you are saying something that they understand… they are people who have such experience but they connect with a blink of an eye, saying yes, she has a point. And then the trust gets established and never gets broken from thereon. So, it has been wonderful working with them," Shefali told News18.com.
Guilty Minds has been helmed by Shefali Bhushan and co-directed by Jayant Digambar Samalkar, who is also one of the writers of the series. Jayant Digambar Samalkar, along with Shriya Pilgaonkar and Varun Mitra, too joined in the chat with News18.com.
On being asked if he thinks OTT has given new writers and directors a chance to bloom. Jayant said, “This is a golden period for writers and directors. There are different varieties of content and new subjects that we couldn’t explore earlier in films. And films earlier used to adapt to a subject that has already been declared a hit. Let’s say that a film’s subject will be adapted because it is a tried and tested formula. And even if you have a good script, you need a big star. When you have the stars, they don’t have the producer. So that was the case in a lot of films."
“In OTT, we have the advantage that we see the stars first and later we the star, and sometimes even a star isn’t needed in some stories. It is a content-driven industry, so we have a lot of benefits from OTT. The stories that we weren’t able to convey, as there are different directors from different backdrops and bring their new perspectives to the show. You must have seen varied content on Amazon Prime Video including Pataal Lok and Panchayat," Jayant told News18.com.
Sharing a fun anecdote from the shooting of Guilty Minds, Shefali recalled, “During one of the shots, Shriya was supposed to slap Varun. But she wasn’t slapping him hard enough for everyone to hear its sound. The slap had to be hit in such a way that we get to hear the echo of it. That was the sequence when he had a lot of slaps on his face," quipped Shefali.
Shriya interrupted to say, “I was hesitant to slap him." Shefali had asked Varun to get close to her after which she puts a light slap on his face. Poor Varun recalled the incident, saying, “I even have this recorded on my phone. I won’t forget it."
Talking about the chemistry Varun and Shriya had on the sets, Varun said, “Before we got on board for the show, we knew each other just the right amount. When we started shooting for the show, we didn’t have any baggage of our relationship at all and have the comfort a little bit. It really helped us to be able to play each scene and each emotion in the way it needed to be played. That is why we were able to do justice to the characters. Also, for chemistry you also need a mysterious element, and when we saw it. It actually was looking so good, and we were appreciating each other."
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