I do not judge my characters: Scoop director Hansal Mehta drops his 'cardinal rule' for crafting stories

Hansal Mehta is elated at the response his new series Scoop has been garnering. Talking about storytelling, the acclaimed director shared his cardinal rule as a storyteller.

Mumbai: Filmmaker Hansal Mehta, who has been getting a lot of positive response to his recently released streaming show Scoop, has shared his 'cardinal rule' for crafting stories. Scoop, which is inspired by real events and Jigna Vora's memoir Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison, tells how she was framed by the police and investigating agencies for abetting the murder of crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey citing professional rivalry.

Talking about how he stays away from showing his characters in a particular light, Hansal told IANS: "I find the whole process of not getting into the binary of good and bad about my characters very easy and I'll tell you why. I have a very simple, cardinal rule: to not judge my characters and their actions. I keep my mind open to what my characters would do next and that is important as a storyteller. I try to explore their compulsions, their journeys and let the black, white or grey come out of that."

He also spoke about the production design of the show and how he and his team arrived at the outcome which is shown in the series. The director shared with IANS: "I have seen newsrooms of that time, I have visited Times of India very often when I was promoting my films in the early years. So, the visuals of those spaces have stayed with me for a long time and of course my team did brilliant research about the production design. We also spoke to a lot of people to understand how that world functions. Newsrooms are not always bustling with energy, most of the time they're mundane, we had to find exciting moments and portray them in the series." Scoop is streaming on Netflix. (IANS)