Vaibhav Vishal is known as the screenwriter of much-admired web shows such as Inside Edge, Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, Rana Naidu and John Abraham and Emraan Hashmi’s Mumbai Saga, a 2021 action crime film. During his recent appearance in the 4th Edition of Vishwarang Literature Arts and Culture Festival in Bhopal, he spoke to Vishal Duggal of Pravasi Indians on the OTT platform, creative freedom of the artists, and many more issues.
Excerpts from the interview…
How do you look at the new growing medium of web series? Is it going in the right direction, considering the controversies it has evoked recently such as those surrounding recent series by Ekta Kapoor? Do you think should there be a boundary-line on the kind of explicit content that is being streamed? What should be the ideal format?
It is important to know whether we are a reflection of the society or the society is a reflection of us. For example, I’ve not invented the abuses, still we have been hearing them often in the society and it’s also being reflected in films as well as in the web series. It means that we are showing what is happening outside.
It’s not like that what is happening outside is because we are showing that in web series. If you are hearing abusive language in web series, then it is because people tend to communicate so. It is not like people abuse because we show abuses; if that is the case then perhaps a finger can be raised.
I strongly believe that we are the reflection of society and not vice versa. As far as controversies are concerned—sometimes, people like a particular presentation and some don’t. And you have the remote in your hand, you can change the channel and choose some other channel to view. If that is the scenario why you are giving a blow to our creative freedom? We want to show our creativity to the viewers and maybe you don’t like it but someone else may appreciate it. That’s why I find it very pointless that people start controversies about everything.We put in a lot of efforts to deliver our work. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it but don’t create controversies.
Most of the time, yes. What’s going to take place in the future is that depending on the audience things will be developed. But I’m talking about mainstream. I’m not talking about those platforms like Ullu App because they are showing only nudity or sex. I’m talking about whatever is being shown in the mainstream be it on Netflix or Amazon Prime, as a writer I feel that’s the demand.
Q. Your much-acclaimed work Scam 1992 helped people understand how such scams take place. Don’t you think such serious content is very less in web series?
Efforts are being made for raising different topics. Recently, a series named ‘Jamtara’ came. It was on the topic of scam through phone. So many people are trying and some of these series will be successful while others may not be successful. We all are trying to cover various subjects.
During the time of COVID, so many web-series became overtly popular. However, don’t you think now there is a kind of declining trend and less people may watch it?
It was not like those web-series became popular since they came during the COVID-19, I believe even if they may have come today in normal time they would have attained success. The people may not have watched them too much in comparison to their viewership during the time of COVID but I believe it all depends on content; web-series with good content will always enjoy abundance of viewership.
