Karan d Kapadia Opens Up About Celebrating Father Figures & Tapping into Parental Trauma in Hunkkaar: The Roar

Karan d Kapadia and Nitya Mehra’s Hunkkaar: The Roar is making some serious waves ever since it started streaming on September 25. In addition to the gripping storyline, the series has strongly connected with viewers for its formidable ensemble including Aneet Padda, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Raghubir Yadav, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Arjun Mathur, among others. As the show continues to win hearts, Karan d Kapadia shared how Fatima Sana Shaikh, Raghubir Yadav, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Arjun Mathur united for the show and brought their A-game.

At the end of one of the episodes, Aneet Padda’s Meenu Rawat heads to the street to have golgappas. Amid the ongoing trial, little does she know that her public appearance would become an invitation to online abuse and would question her intent.

“Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub read one scene – the golgappa scene of Aneet – and he came on board. He said, ‘No one is talking about cinema like this; no one is talking about a story like this,” Kapadia says.

Fatima Sana Shaikh steps into the shoes of a young police officer who handles the case of Minu Rawat’s sexual assault. Calling Shaikh a “great actor,” he says, “I have been her fan since Dangal. She does so much research for a character. She spent time with police officers to bring the fierce and great resilience that the character required. She has restraint in her approach; she knows she’s fighting for a cause which is greater than herself. At the same time, she has a bit of nervousness as it’s her first big case.”

Raghubir Yadav is on a roll, right from Panchayat’s Pradhanji to Hunkkaar’s Baapji. “He’s one of the maverick giants of actors we have. He was so excited to play a character that he had never played before.”

Speaking of Arjun Mathur, who plays a prime-time anchor on the show, he says, “To put Arjun in the tricky landscape of Indian media was a task. But he brings the voice of critique and balance to the show.”

The end of the six-episode series features a scene with Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Fatima Sana Shaikh celebrating their fathers for moulding their personalities. Speaking of the same, Kapadia says, “It’s a very personal scene. I wrote this scene, keeping my equation with my parents in mind. We are all products of our parents’ traumas. And we try to overcome that in our lifetime. But that scene is a celebration of father figures. Also, I want to delve deep into the psyche of the police and lawyer protagonists. While one keeps complaining about his father, the other feels she didn’t have the opportunity to even fight with him.”