Exclusive! Dahan director Vikranth Pawar: We have done everything that we were advised not to do during the shoot

The web series Dahan, releasing on Disney+Hotstar, stars Rajesh Tailang, Mukesh Tiwari, Saurabh Shukla, and Tisca Chopra

Tisca Chopra, a still from Dahan

Since the trailer for the upcoming show Dahan was released, the audience's curiosity about who will win in the ongoing battle between Avani and the people of Shilaspura, a village with some ancient traditions, has grown. In conversation with OTTplay, the director of the show shares more insight and anecdotes about making the show.

Dahan is a nine-episode web series that is set in a deserted village - Shilaspura. The people of the village believe in a fable that the village was cursed by a spirit, and the spirit is resting in a cave. They fear that the spirit will kill all the villagers. Avani, an IAS officer comes to the village and gets a report that a satellite has detected rare earth minerals around that cave. The struggle starts when Avani wants to reach the cave villagers stop her, out of their fear that the spirit, if disturbed could ruin human lives. A series of paranormal incidents follows then.

The show is directed by Vikranth Pawar and written by Nisarg Mehta, Shiva Bajpai and Nikhil Nair.

Sharing the inception of the story, Vikranth said," I have always been very interested in the question and tussle between traditional practice and modern development that we often face as a developing country. It is a fascinating area for me to explore as a storyteller. The existence of the place Shilaspura came about, from that thought. Gradually I started developing a character like Avani Raut who comes and questions those traditions because she represents everything scientific, progressive and logical. Then the question arises on how these two worlds - progressive and traditional - collide and a journey starts from there."

Actress Tisca Chopra is playing the character of Avani while Saurabh Shukla narrates the character of Pramukh who believes in superstition and influences the villagers to stop Avani to enter the cave of Shilaspura.

Asked if he believes in the existence of the supernatural world, the director said, "I haven't experienced anything supernatural even when I was doing my research for the show and while shooting. But you see, there are people who believe in the existence of different things. Some believe in astrology, some in numerology. Some people believe that only science can give logical explanations to every answer we are looking for. I, as a storyteller, is not an expert in any of these areas."

"In our show, we are trying to tell a story of a place Shilaspura, where a section of people believe in certain thoughts and traditions. What happens when a person like Avani comes into the picture for the development of the place and challenges those traditions," he further added.

Dahan is shot in some of the unexplored rugged villages of Rajasthan and from the stunning visuals of the show, it is evident that the cast and crew had extensive outdoor shooting.

The director shared that the team had a tough time shooting for the show since the landscape and weather condition was quite extreme.

Vikranth said, " With Dahan, we have done everything that everyone advised not to do. We have worked under extreme weather conditions like in the desert when it was 47-degree temperature, we shot underwater and also on the top of the mountain! We have worked with children, with animals and to do that we had to take huge precautionary measures. It wasn't an easy shoot at all. But eventually, everything was worthy of taking the risk."

Dahan, produced by Banijay Asia, Deepak Dhar, and Rishi Negi - also features - Rajesh Tailang, Mukesh Tiwari, Saurabh Shukla, Ankur Nayyar, Rohan Joshi, Lehar Khan - releases on September 16, on Disney+Hotstar.

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