Ekam showrunners Sumanth and Sandeep: ‘It’s a series that explores India through stories’

The stories are rooted — a young girl’s fledgling love story is decided by a love letter, an ace hunter forgets his natural skills when faced with technology, a failed NRI tries to do business, a school girl has to confront the reality of her birth when a school lab test throws up a confusing result, a man supposedly attends his own funeral, tradition and legacy come together with disastrous consequences, and a writer’s past appears in his present.

The series is co-produced by actor-director Rakshit Shetty’s Paramvah Studios, and the seven episodes — Haarata (Flight), Shoonya (Void), Dombarata (Masquerade), Branti (Delusion), Swathu (Legacy), Poorvachaara (Tradition) and Asmite (Identity) — allow you a glimpse into what makes Karavali, that stretch of land alongside the Arabian Sea comprising Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada, special.

The series features some big names — Prakash Raj and Raj B Shetty, among others — but more importantly, a bunch of other talented actors, who make a mark for themselves. The writing is sensitive, and is cognisant of existing societal bias, which is refreshing. Watch the climax of ‘Flight’ to see a girl assert herself, and a portion of Delusion, where the child is never made to feel she’s cornered or alone when meeting an authority figure. That kind of writing feels wholesome.

In the run-up to the launch of the series, most of the conversation revolved, and rightly so, around the fact that they had to launch their own platform to stream the series because no OTT would touch it. Now, after a month of its launch, it is clear the series has found an involved audience, and it is not the audience they thought would be theirs. This has been a huge learning, say Sumanth and Sandeep in a joint conversation. Excerpts from the interview:

Why did you begin with Karavali? What about this region made you want to set the show here?

Sumanth Bhat: I’m born and brought up in Udupi, and Ekam originally began as a short film during the peak monsoon in Udupi. It was one hell of an experience and no one in the team had experienced a monsoon of that severity before. That’s the short that eventually became ‘Delusion’, about a girl whose life is thrown asunder after a casual science experience in school.

Sandeep PS: This area offered a lot to explore, and we were fascinated by it. We wanted to explore the various aspects of the region, and give the audience the feeling of having travelled to Karavali. It helped that we had access to both people and places here, thanks to Sumanth.

So, the show broadly hints at certain belief systems, but does not go in-depth into them. Did you’ll at any stage feel these might not be accessible to the average viewer?

Sumanth: Not really. We wanted to do something we believed in. Our focus was on getting stories that reflected the region, and not on making it accessible to all. We knew from the beginning that some people would love it, some might not enjoy it that much, and some might not like it at all. But we knew we had a series that demands you to invest your time and energy.

Sandeep: When we were looking to make this series, pre-pandemic, we were looking at something that reflects the greying of black and white characters. Most shows were based in the metros, and we were reminded of Malgudi Days and how it charmed the country. We wanted to do something similar but our goal was to reflect the personality of a place to the reader, and that’s how we curated the show.

How heartening has the response been?

Sandeep: We went in with a very pessimistic expectation that 50-60 per cent of the people might dislike it. We presumed that the bulk of people who will watch it would be cinephiles. And what we have found is that we have attracted a core Kannada audience who identify with what they’re seeing on screen. It is familiar territory for them, and we have so much positive feedback.

Sumanth: It has been very heartening, more so because of who it is coming from. We did not know that this is our audience. They’ve been watching on phones, tablets and televisions and sending us voice messages, emails, messages through the support line, and social media. There was this elderly gentleman of 78 who had called. He spoke so passionately about films in general, and how much he liked ‘Flight’. A lot of this is necessary feedback for us. To see people relate to each story differently has been humbling.

Sandeep: If, for instance, a viewer posts something about Ekam on social media, and states they did not understand a cultural nuance, other viewers rush in to explain. This discourse and sharing of perspective and the resultant conversation is heartwarming.

You’ve cast very well for the series, working with a mix of known and unfamiliar faces…

Sandeep: We were naïve while making Ekam, and the reality of what it takes to bring something to the market was something we did not know. We had the opportunity to cast more familiar faces, but we felt it would not help the series. We believed that casting lesser-known actors is a liberty we could take if the series was premiering on OTT. We just went with whether they suited the role. Of course, we chose people who know the language.

Sumanth: The ultimate goal was representing the place. We knew that casting familiar names alone will not help. I can’t for instance think of any mainstream actor for the role of Guruva.

Sandeep: We were particular they should know the local dialect though because we were doing live sound.

Dakshina Kannada is known for its dry, delicious humour, which, when written well, lands beautifully. At what stage of shoot did you realise you had got the humour right?

Sumanth: While writing, it was still unclear if it would land or not. But when Raj’s friend and actor Mime Ramdas rehearsed their lines, I realised they took it one or two notches above the script. We were confident it would land well. It was utter joy to see them perform because even with a good script, you need good actors to take it to the next level.

Have you started working on Season 2?

Sumanth: Not right now. After the effort it has taken us to bring Season 1 to light, we want to work on our individual films and then regroup for Season two. At some point in 2019, we even thought we should set the seasons in different states. Our imagination was wild. We looked at it as a series that explores India through stories.

How did you curate the stories?

Sandeep: We had to choose seven from a collection of 15 stories. We played around with the sequence. Originally, we thought of it in the order of Tradition, Legacy, Flight, Delusion, Masquerade, Void, and then

Identity, following how human beings grow. We were certain we wanted to conclude with Identity because there’s a huge identity crisis in Karavali. This became a lens for each episode, a scaffolding of sorts.

How inclusive was your writing process?

Sumanth: We might not have lived their lives, might not have been a Guruva or a Khushi, but when writing, we spoke to other stakeholders so that we stuck to the meter. We referenced a lot, met real-life people from similar backgrounds, so we didn’t slip up.

What’s your learning from Ekam?

Sandeep: I see it from two lenses. From the perspective of the film, there’s some learning and constant evolution. We can probably earn our indulgence along the way. From the perspective of the market, it sort of answers why we may not jump into Season 2. We have realised that no one cares who you are unless you go straight to the market and make a name with your films. We seek a viable balance.

Sumanth: My learning is largely about where we want to be as filmmakers. Basically, grow enough to make the film you want. You can then experiment with any genre, and you will have an audience that will back you on an exploratory journey, unlike now when it is a lonely path. We want to develop and nurture an audience of our own.

Sandeep: I’ll also speak about getting the right distribution early on. We failed in that aspect for Ekam. We waited for two-three years, and faced rejection after rejection, without ever being watched.