Lockdown made work on 'Hostages 2' challenging says director Sachin Mamta Krishn

By Justin Rao
    Mumbai, Sep 11 (PTI) Debutant director Sachin Mamta Krishn says working on the season two of the kidnapping drama "Hostages" became a challenge as they had to complete the post production on the series during the coronavirus-led lockdown.
     The Hotstar Special series, starring Ronit Bose Roy, Divya Dutta, Dino Morea and Shibani Dandekar, hit a roadblock when the lockdown was announced in March.
    Krishn, who worked as the Director of Photography on season one and was also the associate director on the show, had to juggle dual responsibilities of being a DoP as well as the director on the second season.
    "When the lockdown was announced, I was deep in the middle of post production. I started to adapt to new ways of working on Zoom calls and emails but that didn't work out too well for me.
    "You can't really fine tune, pick nuances on a Zoom call. On a very frustrating day, deep in the middle of the lockdown, I decided to go to the studio and work from there," he told PTI.
    The director said he couldn't afford to delay the process as the release date of September 9 was already set.
    Krishn said he decided work on the series with two other team members out of an empty studio while ensuring the safety precautions.
    "It was scary and surreal. I would enter this huge building, all empty and ghostly, with only the three of us. In that dark room, we felt we were kept as a hostage by the virus. We were working backwards, that was the pressure. We had to deliver."
    An adaptation of the Israeli series of the same name, the first season of "Hostages" premiered last year with National Award winning filmmaker Sudhir Mishra directing it.
    Mishra serves as a 'series director' on season two of the crime thriller while Krishn has transitioned to direction.
    He credits Mishra, with whom he has worked since "Khoya Khoya Chand" in 2007, as one of the biggest factors that kept him calm during the months of lockdown and a looming deadline.
     "Sudhir and I have always worked as co-collaborators. I've never been only a DoP to him and he hasn't been only a director to me. Right from the screenplay to costumes, we have sat together for everything.
    "The transition was anything but sudden. When I started the work, I didn't feel I was doing something new. Sudhir was the mentor. I'd often turn to him, for suggestions and a basic sense of direction."
    The first season of the show centred around a doctor who is forced to make a critical decision after her family is taken hostage.
    The director said the latest season picks up from where the show ended and is "more explosive."
    "The first season had a lot of restraint and tense but quiet moments whereas season two is relentless. It is explosive, in terms of the casting, subplots and the twists," he added. PTI JUR BK
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)