India’s Karishma Tanna talks about award-winning Netflix series ‘Scoop’ in Busan

Hansal Mehta’s Netflix series “Scoop” on Sunday won Best Asian TV Series and Best Actress for Karishma Tanna at the 2023 Asian Content Awards and Global OTT Awards at the Busan International Film Festival.

The hit crime drama series is based on journalist Gigna Vola’s 2019 memoir Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison. Tanna plays the lead role of Jagruti Pathak, a scoop-hunting journalist who gets caught up in the nexus of police, underworld and media.

Mehta (Deception 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story) cast Tanna in the role because she had the “X-factor” and she “lighted up a room” during her audition. “This is a role that was encouraged by the writer and is a dream come true for her,” Tanna said. variety In Busan.

“The entire show is about the character of Jagruti Pathak and the director sees a lot of potential in you and you feel a responsibility,” Tanna added. “When I played this character, I got to see many sides of her personality and it took me to the depth of the role. As an actor, I like challenges and complex characters, and I love being on set. I like the thrill of moving the graph up and down.”

Tanna made her debut in 2001 with Ekta R. Kapoor’s long-running and hugely popular soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and her recent credits include the Prime Video series Hush Hush and the ZEE5 film Lahore. Confidential, etc. She Tanna also won the 10th season of the reality show ‘Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi’.

“In my long career, I can say this is my best project,” Tanna says of “Scoop.”

Mehta gave the actors the freedom to interpret the characters as they saw fit. “He doesn’t put you in any boxes, he just lets you be. He just says, “Do whatever you feel from within as an actor, and do it.” So, because he gave you so much freedom as an actor, you often open up and bring your imaginative side to that character as well. And that’s what I did,” Tanna said.

Tanna added that actors tend to get nervous when directors demand a certain tonality, but Mehta eases the tension and shapes the performance as the director wants. In terms of preparation, Mehta made it clear that he did not want Tanna to meet Vora and copy her mannerisms. Instead, he took her to various police stations and press clubs in Mumbai and made her understand her world of crime reporting. In between, real life intervened.

“When I was filming the newsroom scenes, I was actually getting married. So I was simultaneously preparing for my wedding and doing the dialogue around that schedule. It was very content-heavy. , we had a fruitful dialogue,” Tanna said. “I had to completely de-glamour because marriage was my first schedule in prison, so I had to get into the zone of what I was going through.”

“Our art setting was so realistic that it felt like we were actually in the prison. And the women in the prison were so real that it felt like they were actually prisoners with me. Everything. They overlapped and made the scene even better,” Tanna said.

The actor has yet to sign anything new and is working on several scripts that have arrived since “Scoop.” For now, she is basking in the joy of winning her second straight series in Busan. “I’m just happy and grateful to Hansal sir and Netflix for giving me this opportunity. And I’m trying to bring out my talent,” Tanna said.