Ram Madhvani: ‘There couldn't have been any better person to play Aarya than Sushmita Sen’

Ram Madhvani, the creator of the Sushmita Sen-starrer series Aarya.

For almost two seasons, the audience watched as Sushmita Sen played the reluctant don in Disney+ Hotstar’s thriller series Aarya. However, it is in season 3 that she seems to have embraced the role of a lioness, protecting her family and aiming to take control of the drug operations. In an interview, creator of the series Ram Madhvani talks about the new season and what he believes makes for a clutter-breaking show in today’s times. Edited excerpts:

You have mentioned earlier that Aarya was supposed to be a film. With its huge success, do you think it worked better as an OTT series?

Yes, in hindsight, I am happy that Aarya was not made into a film because, at that time, the idea that a daughter could send her father to jail was not resolved in my head. Then, when Disney+ Hotstar offered to make it into a series, by that time, I understood how to handle the ending of Aarya being a mother first and not a daughter. Therefore, in Season 1, we did the Bhagavad Gita where we focused on karma (action) and dharma (moral duty) thematically. It was more fitting for an OTT subject. Also, obviously, it deserves more than just a two-hour film; the many characters and the many events in her life demanded a longer duration. I am happy that we could do it as an OTT series because we got a lot of love, and the audiences received it really well.

One expects new seasons of cherished shows to be bigger and better than the previous ones. Was that the thought behind Aarya 3?

We've now had the reviews and public response in for Season 3, and it seems to be fabulous. That's just for the first four episodes which we have released. The very idea that Aarya now has to take over what she didn't want to take over, and the price she has to pay, and the sacrifices she has to make and, therefore, the emotional consequences on her children and the moral choices and crises she has to go through has really resonated with the audience.

There is so much content in the digital space. What do you think makes for a clutter-breaking show in today's time?

I think what we try to do is put people in moral dilemmas. We try to tell emotional stories that are relationship-based. Anything with emotions and anything that is family-based, which can appeal to a broad audience — young, old, male, female — is what we try to put out. I think there is a value system that people look for in the content they are watching, especially when they are watching a family show because TVs are in living rooms and not only bedrooms. It needs to be for everybody, from grandparents, nephews-nieces, sons-daughters, and the whole family needs to be in and out of that living room. So that is what needs to be made — content which has a value system that can reach out to families.

A still from Aarya 3.

Could you recall your first meeting with Sushmita Sen when you approached her for the role?

Sushmita Sen has the power to greenlight a project. I don't have the power to greenlight her; she has the power to greenlight us. I am very happy that she said yes. She has said that she was looking forward to suitable content, and she had refused many. When my co-producer Amita Madhvani and I met her for the first time, in under 5 minutes, she said yes. I was so surprised and apprehensive that, maybe, in a couple of days her lawyers would call up to say, 'it's been a wonderful meeting, but she won’t do it.' Over time, I realised, Sushmita tells you straight to your face what she feels, and if she said yes, then she will do it. That's been one of the nice interactions with her, her straightforwardness. I don't think there could have been any better person to play Aarya than Sushmita Sen.

The films you have done, Neerja (2016) and Dhamaka (2021), were both successful and established you as a thinking director. What have been some of your influences and learnings which have made you the filmmaker that you are?

Well, with both Neerja, Dhamaka, and now Aarya, there is a certain philosophical viewpoint in all of them. There will always be some Sanskrit; there will always be a viewpoint that says something more elevated thematically, e.g., in Dhamaka, there was the song Khoya paaya tune hai kya? In Aarya Season 1, there was the Bhagavad Gita or in Season 2, there was Digambar khele masane mein Holi, or in Neerja, there was the Maha Mrityunjaya mantra right at the end with the Jeete hai chal Song. There is constantly a reverberation of Sanskrit and philosophy in all the works that actually bind it, and I think those reverberations are what people receive. Even in Aarya Season 3, we have a lot of shlokas in the background music, though they are in Sanskrit. I think those reverberations work with the audience since there's a certain invocation and (spiritual) elevation that one feels.