Hansal Mehta on 'Scam 1992': It's a warning for current times

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta on Monday said his upcoming web series "Scam 1992 - The Harshad Mehta Story" serves a twin purpose: reliving an era gone by and a cautionary tale about what the future holds.

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta on Monday said his upcoming web series "Scam 1992 - The Harshad Mehta Story" serves a twin purpose: reliving an era gone by and a cautionary tale about what the future holds. "Scam 1992" follows the life of stockbroker Harshad Mehta, who single-handedly took the stock market to dizzying heights, and his catastrophic downfall. The 10-episode web series is based on journalists Debashis Basu and Sucheta Dalal's book "The Scam".

During a virtual press conference for the show, Mehta said "Scam 1992" chronicles a story which continues to be of importance even after two decades. "I can't think of a more relevant story for the times we are living in. We have seen series of scams, which are sort of mirror images of the Harshad Mehta scam. It (the series) talks about an era where I was growing up and still hadn't become a filmmaker. "At the same time it is almost like a telling of the future. It is talking about what the system, if not mended, might make people do. The system doesn't seem to have mended. There's scam on scam. This is an important story, a timely warning about the times we are living in," he told reporters. The series is led by actors Pratik Gandhi and Shreya Dhanwanthary. Satish Kaushik, Sharib Hashmi, Anant Mahadevan, Nikhil Dwivedi, KK Raina, and Lalit Parimoo are part of the ensemble cast. While Mehta is known for helming sociopolitical films, including "Shahid", starring Rajkummar Rao, and Manoj Bajpayee-led "Aligarh", the director said the enormity of "Scam 1992" was a challenge. "I've told many true stories but to put this kind of long-form writing on screen was a huge challenge. It was perhaps the biggest, single largest challenge that I've had after making almost 15 feature films," he said.

While chronicling stories of flawed characters on screen, Mehta said, he doesn't "judge" them. With the titular character, the director said the team tried to bring in "some frailty" while writing, performing and staging scenes. "I like to approach a character from a non-judgemental perspective because situations, circumstances and deeds are eventually perceived as positive or negative. The idea is to show things as they happened and let the audience make their own judgements. "I have made a living out of showing flawed characters on screen. Harshad was less flawed than my last outing 'Omerta', where Rajkummar played Omar Saeed Sheikh. Harshad felt like a saint compared to him." Produced by Applause Entertainment in association with Studio Next, the SonyLIV series is adapted by dialogue writers Sumit Purohit, Saurav Dey, Vaibhav Vishal and Karan Vyas. "Scam 1992" is slated to start streaming from October 9.

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