Asur director Oni Sen opens up on his fav scene: When Shubh Joshi showed his human side

Asur director Oni Sen has said that he ensured all his characters of the web show were written in a way that made it possible for them to have both positive and negative sides of human nature. The first season of Asur released in 2020 on VOOT, while the second season came out last month on Jio Cinema. (Also read| Asur 2’s Abhishek Chauhan: ‘I totally messed up my first audition’)

In an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times, Oni opens up on his favourite scenes from the show, how the main protagonist Shubh Joshi gave a peak into his humane side, and how difficult it was to work on a thriller based on Hindu mythology. Here is an excerpt:

Will you share your experience of working on the characterisation, and casting for Shubh Joshi?
I normally write a lot about characters just so we have a clearer idea of who to cast. I did not want Shubh to be the stereotypical bad guy or villain. Of course, there is darkness in him, but I did not want to compartmentalise him. He is just a boy whose circumstances have been different from others and affected him in a certain way. But he has a brilliant mind – while he creates a storm outside, there is a certain calm and stillness inside him. That was extremely important. If you notice closely, his eyes hardly move, there are very few blinks, and there is a certain thehrao (pause) in his character. Even when he speaks, there is no violence or animosity in his speech or physical action. His shawl never flutters.

When Shubh Joshi takes a life – I wondered how to stage it, and what will he feel? Anger, remorse, (will he be) blank or happy? It may not be the right word, but he looks at it like mercy killing. He even tells his grandfather ‘Mukti de raha hu (I am giving you salvation)’. It is almost like he is saying ‘your time is over, I am only a facilitator’.

This graph reaches the finale when he kills his grandfather. It is actually one of my favourite scenes. Both Deepak and Abhishek were amazing and you can even see tears rolling down his cheek. There is love, hatred, and for a moment I felt and wanted everyone to feel, that there is an amazingly humane side to this man (Shubh) which we get to see for just a moment. Then that goes away. We worked on these to make Shubh a complex character, but also one that is rounded and slightly soulful.

What about the character of Anant and Atharva’s casting for it?

The casting of Anant was a tough one. We had to have someone people could believe to be a miracle boy. We have a certain vision when we say a miracle boy – and a lot of that vision comes from the young Bhakt Prahlad cover on Amar Chitra Katha or some such reference. At least it was for me…We were walking on very thin lines, and it could have gone this or that way..Had we not handled correctly., it could all sound very fake and pretentious.

Some of it was about how his lines were – it had to be a lot more simple (than other intellectual characters on the show)…and (we had to ensure Anant did) not get into a pravachan (preachy) mode at all. Then came how he would react and portray his character. That again, had to be simple. When you ask kids that age to say some lines, most of the times it gets into a sing-song pattern. Maybe, because of the elocutions from school or something. I worked extensively on Atharva for that – asked him to forget about stress and all and just be flat and he became believable immediately.

It was a big search that we did all over the country. Then we found him and it was sweet of him that he was willing to stay with that haircut over a period of six months and that helped a lot.

DJ and Nikhil’s characters?

Arshad Warsi and Barun Sobti were already onboard before I walked into the project. Arshad, I had been a fan but never met him. As for Barun, I had never seen his work as he has mainly worked in TV.

How difficult was it to work on a thriller based on Hindu mythology in today’s time?

There were some seeds of Indian mythology in (the idea of Asur when Oni first started working on it). I was not too sure how to go about it. Because with Indian mythology in the mainstream, you can go wrong in many ways. When I read it, what struck me was that the thriller, narrative, the mythology were all strongly entwined. Not just juxtaposed with the other.

The human story – that is what excites me all the time, that is what I want to do. I thought there was an immense possibility of working on the human story and emotions and add to it this entire world of mythology – the mystic and mystery of it used in the narrative. Was not easy but we enjoyed it.

Is Asur 3 in the works?

Not yet, certainly not yet. It is something that Gaurav and I have been discussing and we agree upon one thing. Just because Asur and Asur 2 have been somewhat successful, means we have to have Asur 3. That cannot be the reason. We need to find the right spark. Any of these take a couple of years of our life, the moment Gayuarv finds that spark and we shall jam and discuss that. As of now, there is nothing.