Why Pushkar Mahabal's ‘Black, White & Gray' is a killer crime-thriller
Writer-director Pushkar Mahabal is on cloud nine these days, basking in the adulation for his debut series Black, White & Gray: Love Kills on SonyLIV. Taking an ingenious approach to a crime thriller—part documentary with talking heads, part fictional re-enactments with clever use of found footage—the series has gained currency through word-of-mouth publicity.'It's overwhelming,' says Mahabal. 'I was sure we won't get negative reviews because we knew it wasn't a bad show. What surprised me was how people have picked every single beat and minute detail.'advertisementTracing the bloody footprint of a serial killer, the show, through the course of six episodes, leaves viewers with multiple perspectives of the crimes. It does so by featuring voices of multiple individuals—the accused and his parents, the victims' friend and family, police officers, an assassin, to name a few. By the end of it, viewers are left to wonder who's telling the truth and what truly transpired.With saas-bahu TV shows and a little-seen film to his credit, Mahabal had his share of struggles to find a taker for his series. SonyLIV came to his rescue. 'From the first meeting with SonyLIV we knew we were at the right place,' says Mahabal. 'Saugata Mukherjee, [head of content, SonyLIV,] felt it was well thought out. Rarely does it happen that a platform says we will give you feedback but you make the show you want to make.'advertisement
It helped that Mahabal had gone with bound scripts for all six episodes rather than a traditional bible that outlines the story. It's a unique approach and a risky one too, but was worth it. 'Entering this field is gamble enough,' adds Mahabal. 'Why not go one step further and follow one's gut?'The opportunity also came at a time the streaming industry is going through a creative churn, with writers and creators finding it tough to get projects going with streaming platforms. 'It's a systemic problem, not one to pin on an individual. Everyone will have creative interpretations and clashes, back and forth will happen, and feedback will be taken negatively,' says Mahabal. 'I want to invest my time in writing a show that I believe in. I don't want to get into development phase with a network because that doesn't work.'Mahabal came to Mumbai from Nagpur, harbouring a passion for music. He started by composing for Marathi films. Six years on, he pivoted to direction, scoring his big break with the TV show Manmarziyaan. 'After that, I did a lot of regressive work; the more regressive it was the more money I made. I have done even close-ups of sindoor,' he says candidly.advertisementMahabal's stint in TV helped forge many friendships and taught him many lessons. 'TV gave me an idea that I should only write things that I can produce should I not find a producer,' he says.It wasn't long before Mahabal and his two friends, writer-producer Ankita Narang and cinematographer Saee Bhope, banded together and decided to get out of their comfort zone to make a film, investing their own savings and taking loans. The result was Welcome Home, which found home on SonyLIV. 'We launched ourselves because nobody else would give us the opportunity,' he says.A fan of true-crime documentaries and an ardent watcher of shows such as Forensic Files, Mahabal describes Black, White & Gray as a true-crime doc that he wanted to see. Having heard interviews of American serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer and seen Netflix docs Night Stalker and Don't F*** With Cats triggered the idea. 'I was envious because I felt I didn't have the patience or the resources or the skills to make a true-crime doc. I thought if I can't make a real one, let me just fake one,' he says.Mahabal also felt the saturated market of OTT crime thrillers needed a fresh outlook. 'I was bored of watching the same things, sometimes shot badly or sometimes in a brilliant manner. No one was playing with non-linear screenplay. There was no experimentation in the genre,' he notes.advertisementMahabal recalled a friend's brief misadventure in Goa where his girlfriend lost consciousness, briefly leaving him panicked if she was dead and how to contend with the situation. 'I thought it would be a funny dark comedy and did write it, but then left it midway,' he recounts. By 2022, he was revisiting the anecdote and giving it a new spin.Part of Black, White & Gray's appeal is how Mahabal uses the talking heads to infuse his socio-cultural worldview on issues such as misogyny, class disparity, state of TV news, taboos around love, and so on. Even as viewers become aware of his narrative ploy, the Rashomon way of storytelling ensures one's following the story. That's largely due to the compelling faces casting directors Trishaan and Shubham find for the interviews and the way Mahabal directs them.Mayur More (of Kota Factory fame) is the most familiar face in the cast, but the scene-stealer here is Sanjay Kumar Sahu, who plays the accused. The FTII-trained actor and acting coach commands every scene, playing an ordinary man caught in the most extraordinary of circumstances and one whose moral compass is hard to read.advertisementWhile the show is a breakthrough moment in his career, the filmmaker is not letting the attention get to him even as he contends with the expectation that comes his way. 'I have to be careful. I have been getting messages 'Tum uss jaise (filmmaker) mat ho jaana'. So, I am a bit scared also. I am doing a very small Hindi film right now. I just want to focus on it. I don't want to fall into a trap where everyone is like—do something big,' he says.Subscribe to India Today Magazine
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Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Book Box: The courage to be Vaishnavi Patel
A civil rights lawyer by day, an author by night, Vaishnavi Patel constantly challenges the mainstream. Her first book gives us a contrarian version of the Ramayana—letting wicked stepmother Kaikeyi tell her side of the story. On a recent Friday evening, we gathered on Zoom—Vaishnavi logged in from New Orleans, Louisiana. The book club readers joined from three continents—Toronto, London, India, and Singapore. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation: I was the first person in my family born outside of India, born here shortly after my parents immigrated. My parents tried really hard to give me as much of their culture as possible, especially my mom who is Marathi, and she wanted to make sure I spoke at least some Marathi, and my aji would come six months every year and stay with me, so we were as close as we could be with that distance as a family. As a child, I was always a big reader. I also would read a lot of books here from the library. And also I'd read a lot of Amar Chitra Katha and those sorts of books as well, or comics. So it was kind of a nice blend of everything. The Amar Chitra Katha comics were my first exposure to Indian epics, but even then, I remember questioning certain portrayals—why some characters were always 'good' and others 'evil.' That definitely influenced how I approached Kaikeyi's voice. What was the specific moment that sparked the idea for Kaikeyi? The seeds of Kaikeyi were planted seventeen years ago in a discussion between my mother and my grandmother. One particular summer, my grandmother told us the story of how the noble prince Rama was exiled by his jealous stepmother Kaikeyi. At this, my mother stepped in to add that Kaikeyi had actually helped Rama. Without Kaikeyi, my mother pointed out, Rama would have never achieved his destiny by slaying the demon king Ravana, his main adversary in the Ramayana. My grandmother disagreed, arguing that it was cruel to exile your child, no matter the circumstance. And then we moved on. But their minor dispute stuck with me for years, and I would periodically search for stories told from or studying Kaikeyi's perspective to make sense of the contradiction. I never found them. Eventually, I decided to write my own. You wrote Kaikeyi when you were 23, in your first semester of law school—a demanding program. How did you manage that balance? I really don't know how I did it, because I was living alone and presumably had law school work to do, but I've blocked out that time in my memory. Then as now, I write every night, from eight to ten—I just put aside all my other work and do my writing. I feel that writing has actually been very helpful for me mentally because it's a kind of release. The writing style is very different from the law. It's very emotional—it's almost therapeutic. Nowadays, I'm also very fortunate that my husband does all of the cooking and the cleanup, so I can come home and write for two hours, and I will have a meal, and it will all be taken care of. And I mention that only to say that I think that male writers or workers throughout history have always been greatly aided by their wives supporting them and doing all of that work for them, and it's kind of the invisible work that makes their work possible. And I don't want his work to be invisible, so I have to give him that credit—that without him, I probably would not have been able to write more than one book. Your civil rights background clearly influences your storytelling. Can you give us a specific example of how your legal work shaped how you approached characters like Kaikeyi and Ram? Everybody has a story. And there is a side that ultimately is judged to be the correct—the side that the jury picks in a trial. But the other side has presented a very, very different story and characterization of events, and they probably have some evidence for their side of the story, and they probably have some very credible witnesses. And so though we still picked the other side, that doesn't make their story completely false. That's kind of what happens in Kaikeyi—you probably shouldn't believe 100% of everything Kaikeyi says, because she is a very self-justifying character. She always has a reason she'll give you for everything that she did, and she believes that she's right about everything, and she's probably not. So also, you know, Ram's side of the story—that is, Valmiki's Ramayana—is also an equally plausible interpretation of the external events that happen. Working on cases involving marginalized voices—where the system often dismisses their perspective—made me think about how history is written by those in power. Kaikeyi is condemned in the Ramayana, but what if she had a chance to defend herself? That's the core of what I wanted to explore—not to say she's innocent, but to ask, Why did she do what she did? It's the principle that everybody has their own side of the story—and in law, you see a full presentation of both sides, and then you have to choose one. This is very much the thought behind my story of Kaikeyi. How did you get your first publishing break? I just cold-emailed agents. Many agents have a process for contacting them—you just put yourself in there, in what they call the slush pile; if they like the first few chapters, they'll ask for more. And that's what I did, and I was very lucky that it worked out for me. I do think luck plays a big role, like it's about getting the right person at the right time. Similarly for my editor—an Indian American woman who, at that time, was looking for myth retellings from Hindu mythology because she felt that myth retellings from Greek, Roman and Western European mythology were very represented, and there was nothing from Indian mythology. The cover of Kaikeyi is so beautiful. My editor sent me the cover, saying, 'What do you think? If you don't like it, we can make some changes.' And I said, 'Stop, I love it. Don't change anything.' I think I benefited greatly from my editor being Indian American and having a vision for it and wanting to make sure that the cover looked Indian and had this sort of mythic quality to it. You decided to write Kaikeyi as a first-person account? When Kaikeyi's voice came to me in first person, I felt if I'm going to tell her story, I have to tell it through her eyes directly. It was critical for me, to be in her head, to actually get her hopes and dreams, and most importantly, understand her fears. So you understand her motivations, what she's trying to react to, and why she's doing what she's doing. In your portrayal of Kaikeyi, she has a magic ability, one you call the 'binding plane,' which helps her connect with people and even influence them. I love fantasy and magic and wanted an element of this in the story. But I didn't want it to be something that was completely just divorced from the story. I wanted it to be something based on maybe, you know, yoga practices or meditation, energy, etc. And then I had the idea for the binding plane, in part because Kaikeyi starts out her story wanting to not be like a woman. She sees so much value in hunting and fighting and riding and things that are more masculine practices in that time period. But ultimately, her great power is her ability to see and use relationships and subtleties and influence—which, especially in that time period, was considered a means of women's power. You portrayed Ram with human frailties. Did you expect the intense backlash that followed? I did get a significant amount of backlash when Kaikeyi came out. It was a pretty intense response—I got death and rape threats, but thankfully, it was all online. I tried to keep details about where I live off the internet, so I was fairly protected. It was my mom who got very worried, and she was more right than me, which is always the case. I should always listen to her more than I do. How did you cope mentally with that level of hostility toward your work? Kaikeyi came out in April, and then in May, I graduated law school, and then in June, I got married, and then in July, I took the bar exam to become a lawyer. And I think that really helped—that I didn't have too much time to think about it. My sister helped me manage my social media, so a lot of the stuff that came through was filtered, and I didn't really have time to get upset about it. It can be really hard if you're just fully invested—it can hurt your ability to write again. I've seen this happen to friends of mine, where they get afraid to write anything potentially controversial again. I feel lucky that that didn't happen to me. Tell us about the situation with publishing Kaikeyi in India. What exactly happened there? I'm so glad that so many of you are based in India and were able to get the book, because there's no official version in India. It was actually meant to be published—it was set to release the week before Diwali 2022. I asked, Are you sure about this timing? And the publishers were like, Yes, people will buy it as a gift for Diwali. So they had printed the copies, and the copies were in India. And then ten days before publication, I was told, an Independent Review Board has said that this book is religiously offensive, and we're going to pulp all the copies. So they gave a cancel order, and the books were—I was told that they were pulped, which means that they were literally, physically destroyed. But thankfully, we live in a very interconnected world, so it's no longer the case that if a book isn't being published by an Indian publisher, it's inaccessible. You can get it imported through a lot of other places. So it's not a full ban, but it has made it harder because the book is much more expensive. In your story, the character of Ravana is different—he is Sita's father and is protective of her. How much of this draws from existing versions of the Ramayana versus your own invention? This is not the Ravana in the original Valmiki Ramayana. But there are Ramayanas spread across South India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia. Each of these different areas put different spins on the story according to their own principles, traditions, and how they viewed the world. And so in some versions of the story that are told in Southeast Asia, such as, for example, the Thai Ramayan, they have Ravana as Sita's father. And in that version of the story, Ravana is told that your daughter is going to be your doom. And so he basically puts her into the earth, and the earth brings her north. And then later, in some versions, he recognizes it's his daughter, and he's trying to be like, If my daughter is going to kill me, then I'm going to imprison her. And in some versions, he doesn't recognize that it's his daughter. But either way, it's the classic idea that in trying to protect yourself or in trying to avoid your destiny, you, in fact, bring your destiny upon you. However, I did a lot of research on these other versions of the Ramayana and drew on portraying some elements from those into Kaikeyi. I wanted to weave in these nuances rather than sticking to a single 'authorised' version. Tell us about your new book. I studied colonial history a lot in school, and I like to tell women's stories of rising up and fighting back. I do this in Ten Incarnations of Rebellion, a reimagining of a portion of India's independence movement. And you are working on a fourth book as well? It's called We Dance Upon Demons, and it is about a young woman who works at an abortion clinic that's being threatened by demons. So it is very much diving into American politics, and specifically the abortion fight, on which we are an incredibly backward country. I used to volunteer at an abortion clinic, and one of my areas of civil rights law that I have worked on is abortion rights. Given all the controversy and even threats you've faced, what gives you the courage to keep writing these challenging stories? What do you hope readers ultimately take away from your work? You should tell my mom that, because she is very much like, Please stop writing, stop writing these dangerous books. She is very supportive, but she's just worried about me. I'm interested in women's rights, gender justice, voting rights, how democracy works and the interest in those topics transcend law, so they go into my writing quite a bit. I'm interested in women's stories, in their side of the story, in hearing their voices. I'd love for readers to think about motivation behind actions, and to think about different perspectives and for readers to have conversations across generations on these issues. That's exactly what you dream of as an author. (Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya's Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or reading dilemmas, write to her at sonyasbookbox@ The views expressed are personal.) Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Tony Awards cap a record-breaking post-pandemic Broadway season
* Cynthia Erivo to host Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall * Season draws 14.7 million attendees and had 43 openings * Historic nominations for diverse actors include Daniel Dae Kim * But $400 premium tickets out of reach for some theater lovers NEW YORK, - Broadway caps a record-breaking season when the New York theater community bestows its annual Tony Awards during a gala ceremony on Sunday night with an array of nominees that leans into originality, diversity and artistic invention. Buoyed by a post-pandemic rebound, the 2024-25 season grossed a record $1.89 billion in revenue and drew 14.7 million attendees, the Broadway League said. Best musical nominees like 'Dead Outlaw,' 'Maybe Happy Ending' and 'Operation Mincemeat' tell unique and untested stories. On the play side, 'Oh, Mary!' and 'Purpose' offer vastly different takes on belief, identity and power. The "Wicked" film star, Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, will host the 8 p.m. ET show from Radio City Music Hall. Alongside the creative highs are economic realities plaguing producers and audiences alike. Premium seats for some productions run upwards from $400, prompting concern that Broadway is increasingly out of reach for casual and younger theater lovers. Even with lotteries and rush ticket programs, demand-driven pricing has become the norm. 'Every show is its own little startup,' said Rashad Chambers, a Tony Award-winning producer whose recent credits include 'Music Man,' 'TopDog/Underdog,' and this season's Tony-nominated 'Purpose.' 'We have to create shows in a way that's affordable. Not just from the ticket-buying standpoint. The budgets are really ballooning out of control, and in my opinion, it's not always warranted,' Chambers told Reuters. RISING PRODUCTION COSTS A FACTOR Jason Laks, president of The Broadway League, said in a statement that rising costs have affected every facet of production, making it harder and harder to bring live theater to the stage. The Broadway League presents the awards along with the American Theatre Wing. This season showcased a wide range of voices and perspectives, with many shows being led by Asian American, Black, Middle Eastern and Hispanic actors and resulting in some historic nominations. Daniel Dae Kim, who starred in the revival of 'Yellow Face' this season, is the first Asian American to be nominated in the category of best leading actor in a play. 'To know that I'm the first is a little curious,' Dae Kim told Reuters, 'but above all it makes me happy and I'm really honored.' Dae Kim said representation on Broadway has been an evolution, not just for the Asian American community but many communities of color, pointing to such shows as 'Purpose,' which centers on a Black family struggling with identity and ambition. 'I look forward to the time where there's so much representation that it's no longer talked about because it's just understood and assumed,' he said. Chambers, the producer, said audiences, too, seemed to be more diverse. 'I feel like I'm seeing more people of color,' he said. 'I'm seeing diverse age ranges. I've seen men and women. We have a lot of plays that are appealing to men this season. And I think that that's really powerful. And so yes, I do think it's getting better.'
News18
7 hours ago
- News18
Fan Fight Breaks Out At Beyoncé's London Show, Second Scuffle In Weeks
Last Updated: A fight broke out at Beyoncé's London concert, the second such incident in a month, near the stage at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. A fight broke out during Beyoncé's concert in London, making it the second such incident in less than a month. A person who attended the show posted a video of the fight on TikTok, which was later shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Brazilian entertainment page Hugo Gloss. In the video, the camera catches two men dressed in cowboy outfits beating up another person. The incident happened just a few rows from the stage at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, while Beyoncé was singing her hit song Why Don't You Love Me. Some fans nearby tried to break up the fight. The video was shared with a caption that read, 'imagine fighting in front of Beyoncé, like calm down (crying face emoji)." It has already been watched nearly 3 lakh times since it was posted on Friday. The fight took place on Thursday, during the first show of Beyoncé's six-night stop in London for her Cowboy Carter Tour. Sadly, this isn't the first time something like this has happened. In May, a similar fight broke out at her concert in Chicago. That time, fans were seen pushing, throwing punches, and even pulling at each other's clothes. Chairs were knocked over, and some people had to step in to stop the chaos. Despite the drama, Beyoncé put on a powerful show in London. She honoured Black artists who helped shape country music, many of whom are also featured on her Cowboy Carter album. The concert also gave a nod to the Chitlin' Circuit – a group of venues that supported Black performers during segregation in the US. Beyoncé wore a sparkling white bodysuit with fringe and started her show with American Requiem, a song about saying goodbye to racism in country music. She also performed Blackbiird, a Beatles song written about the civil rights movement, featuring rising Black female country singers. She even rode a mechanical bull and flew over the stadium in a car and a giant horseshoe. After her London shows, Beyoncé is headed to Paris for three more performances. (With inputs from Reuters) First Published: June 08, 2025, 12:34 IST News movies » hollywood » Fan Fight Breaks Out At Beyoncé's London Show, Second Scuffle In Weeks
