Filmmaker Karan Anshuman is among the rare breed of creator-showrunners who witnessed the birth of streaming in India firsthand. He played a pivotal role in shaping the country’s OTT landscape with blockbuster titles and cultural phenomena: from Inside Edge—India’s first Prime Original series—to the gritty, sprawling world of Mirzapur and Rana Naidu, Netflix India’s most-watched series at the time of its release.
Anshuman entered the arena when data-led storytelling wasn’t yet the diktat—and he maintains that for him, it still isn’t.
“I’m really fortunate to be one of those people who were in the right place at the right time,” says Anshuman, who transitioned to streaming in 2017 following his feature debut, the wacky black comedy Bangistan. “There was complete freedom at that time to tell the story you wanted to tell.”
As he prepares for the launch of his latest Netflix series, Glory—starring Divyenndu, Pulkit Samrat, Suvinder Vicky, Sayani Gupta—Anshuman sits down with THR India to reflect on the evolution of the streaming space over the last decade and why he refuses to “dumb down” his work for commercial appeal.
Excerpts:
Inside Edge was released nearly a decade ago. You were among the earliest creators to move into streaming at a time when the system was still undefined. How do you look back?
I'm really fortunate to be one of those people who were in the right place at the right time. There was a perfect storm brewing. At that point, our attitude toward entertainment was shaped by the soapy TV of the 1990s that just went on for hundreds of episodes. Now, it was just that same TV available online.
I had started watching premium dramas—American stuff—and I was hooked. I had a lot of ideas that didn’t fit into regular TV or film back then, so I started writing a bunch of things on spec well before any of this happened. It felt like something inevitable was going to happen with Prime Video setting up shop in India. There was complete freedom at that time to tell the story you wanted to tell.
You started on streaming with Inside Edge, followed by Mirzapur and Rana Naidu. All three titles have been influential in the OTT landscape. What is the "streaming code" that you have cracked?
I was just happy to be the first one off! Coming off a film that didn't do well, I felt I needed to lean into something I was better at. I observe, I study, and I travel to see what people are doing. I try to match my take on things. With Mirzapur, Puneet—my co-creator—and I wanted to make a point using gangsters. With Rana Naidu, it was about that pan-India, global feel.
Glory seems to follow a similar high-stakes path. What was the driving force behind this project?
Glory is a story I’ve really been wanting to tell; it comes from a lot of personal angst. In our business, we explore the underdog who makes it big, but we need to go beyond that template. We celebrate the 0.1% of people who make it to the top, but we ignore the 99.9% of people who put in the same amount of frustration and give their all, but get nowhere. That is more relatable because most people have gone through that. I wanted to tell the story of the 99.9%.
Apart from your debut Bangistan, which is a comedy, all your other titles are very intense. Why haven't you returned to comedy?
I think I'm a funny guy, and I love making people laugh. I might have a different brand of humour that doesn't necessarily translate to the kind of comedy that typically works in India. However, I am absolutely willing to make fun stuff again.
My father (late filmmaker Manjul Sinha, known for directing iconic Hindi shows like Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Nukkad, and Rishtey) was a pioneer in comedy in India, so it’s in my blood. I would love to make a sitcom and I’m just waiting for the right moment. The intensity of my other subjects just lends itself to what streamers want—the spectacle and the big drama.
Streamers today seem to look for high-concept ideas and big shows that can span multiple seasons. Is that the wave streamers are riding now?
That is the commercial aspect streamers look at because you can have a locked-in audience that grows with each season. For filmmakers, it’s not hard to set up a universal world; you want to do it again instantly. It takes much longer to make a show than a film, almost three times the amount of writing.
Once you’ve done the hard work of creating the characters and the world, you don’t want to end the story. You’ve created a universe and you want to go back and tell more. For example, with Inside Edge, I only got to where I really wanted to go with a certain drama after three seasons.
What has fundamentally changed in the streaming space over the last decade from a showrunner-creator point of view?
People have moved from very intimate viewing on their phones to watching bigger things on television, which is perhaps more family-oriented. That has started to influence my writing—wondering if I should go a bit wider to reach more people.
Since viewing habits have moved toward community viewing, is there now a demand for more accessible, mainstream storytelling?
Mainstream is where I work. I try to bring a certain sensibility into a story that makes it relatable, which makes it mainstream for me. I don't think I'm necessarily dumbing anything down. It is sharp and sophisticated with an uncompromised look. It’s a myth that mainstream cannot be intellectual; that has been disproved many times over.
Was there more creative freedom in the beginning because nobody had the data yet?
They don't really share much data with us. I'm not that affected by it. Originality is part of that clarity. I don't think data came in the way of telling the story.
What is the plan for your production firm, Atomic Films?
Atomic was essentially created to help me produce the stuff I was doing. But my partner, Mohit, and I quickly realized there is an absolute vacuum of distinctive, high-quality storytelling. There is scope for us to back fresh, new voices and ideas that are not just about me. We want the series we make to be modern, meaningful, and to have a voice.