Writer-director Anuraadha Tewari’s latest project, Dil Dosti Dilemma, is streaming on Amazon Prime. The show revolves around a young girl, with a dollop of family, traditions, and values. Anuraadha feels that traditions and being grounded are welcomed by every generation.
“I am not a moral police, but I believe in instilling values in our children. But I do feel that traditions and groundedness will never go out of style. That is what ‘classic’ really means. It is different from ‘old school.’ There is a new classic for each generation. It reinvents itself, but the values remain the same. So everyone, once in a while, finds it nice to touch upon these things. So I don’t think we need to turn to ’ ‘sanskaari’’; we just have to keep coming up with new stories that have something deeper, something authentic to say. Hopefully this is one of them,” she said.
A lot of OTT series today have foul language and bold scenes, and Anuraadha feels the discussion itself reflects a narrow minded view and comes from very old school patriarchy. She said, “Web series in India have finally started matching international styles of storytelling. Which essentially means real acting, treatment, and authentic worlds. Those are bound to have all kinds of language. I mean, look around you. I really don’t see a very quiet, dignified,‘sabhya’ country!”
“As for ‘bold scenes’, if we are exploring real relationships, sex should be a natural part of them. Look at the population around us! Who are we kidding! So no, this sudden moralistic tone that we have taken with OTT shows, as if we only listen to bhajans all day as a country, I find very hypocritical. At the same time, to do all of that in a show just to sound cool and get eyeballs. That is equally childish. So here is our chance to grow up as a culture. Let’s do it,” she added.
Dil Dosti Dilemma features Anushka Sen, Kush Jotwani, Tanvi Azmi, Suhasini Mulay, and Shishir Sharma in lead roles. It is an adaptation of Andaleeb Wajid’s book Asmara’s Summer.
When asked Anuraadha about the USP of the series, she said, “I think it is a young story with a lot of gravitas. I would like to believe that, like most of my scripts, it really gets into the minds of my characters and reveals to us their inner workings and their dilemmas, bringing their contradictions alive and hence closer to our lives. Unlike most teenage dramas, this is not a flaky rom-com but something that has just a little more depth, a little more layer, and a little something to say. Hopefully it will say it in a way that people will like and remember it for that.”
