Veteran actor Helen marked her return to the screens after over a decade recently with the web series Brown, co-starring Karisma Kapoor. While the show has received love from the audience and industry alike, it’s the comeback of Helen and her equation with Karisma Kapoor on screen that has stood out for the viewers, and director Abhinay Deo insists it was just a fortunate turn of events that made it all possible.
Ask Abhinay Deo if it was challenging to convince Helen to break her hiatus and he shares, “First of all, it was, for me, a fanboy moment, because I’ve grown up watching Helen ma’am right from her yesteryear mind-blowing songs that she has performed on. I really felt that that role (in the show), while it was nothing like she’s played ever before, it something that I really felt and hope that she said yes to. The interesting part was that I don’t know how it transpired, but she said yes, and I was ecstatic. I was over the moon that we are getting somebody like Helen ma’am to play such a beautiful relationship with Rita Brown in the show.”
Watch the full chat with the team of Brown here:
Having made a niche for himself in the thriller genre, ask Abhinay if it becomes challenging to present something new with every project in the same space and he says, “Of course, it is always challenging and the reason is that every script is very different from the other. The past work that I’ve done in the same space is very different from Brown. This show in particular was extra challenging because here we are not just talking about a criminal world. We are just not talking about a cop chasing after a a criminal. We are talking about a cop and her story, her insecurities. We are talking about both the cop characters who lead the show.”
Elaborating on the choices he made in the ZEE5 show, Abhinay shares, “Both of them Arjun (played by Surya Sharma) and Rita both of them have such vulnerabilities. They have such disturbed baggages on them. That probably was more difficult to handle because it’s easier when you have a very single-minded thought to say like cops chasing somebody and then then finally this happens.”
He adds, “Here we are talking about such detailed internal nuances of human nature that you really find it difficult to get into that character. You need to get into the backstory, their childhood, their upbringing and their relationships. So that makes it extremely difficult and challenging. The audience will see it happen in front of them, but for me to sit back and say that is she breaking down to the level of suicide? Is he breaking down to the level of wanting to give up everything? What is it? The choices that you make become challenging.”
