EXCLUSIVE: Ruchi Narain was obsessed with ABC‘s early 2010s drama Revenge — so much so that she spent years trying to land the rights to remake the Mike Kelley show in India.
“I was addicted to the show,” she recalled during an exclusive interview. “From when I saw episode one a decade ago, I thought that this is it — something that should be taken to the Indian audience.”
Now that’s finally come to pass, with Disney+ Hotstar in December ordering a remake, Karmma Calling, from R.A.T. Studios. Narain has the led the adaptation process, and the screenwriter and director has told Deadline the story of how she approached the trials and tribulations of porting the Hamptons to Mumbai high society.
But first, it’s worth exploring exactly how the series came about. Narain, known for hit Indian films such as Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi and Netflix’s 2020 feature Guilty, had begun talking to the Star India network about securing the rights in the mid-2010s. Execs at the channel, which was then owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, liked the idea and began working on an agreement with ABC’s parent, Disney.
However, several “restrictions” mean that a deal fell through. And though the U.S. show was a loose adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ out-of-copyright classic 19th century novel ‘The Count of Montecristo,’ directing adapting the book was never an option for Narain. “I had already worked hard on it and I was upset, but I was sure I wouldn’t do it without the rights,” she said. “I wanted to retain the essential writing of the show so I said, ‘I guess that’s it.’”
That wasn’t it, though. Fate played a powerful hand a few years later when Disney acquired 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets — including Star — in 2019. Suddenly, the rights were internally-owned. “I got a call asking if I still wanted to do, and I said, ‘hell yeah!” adding with a laugh: “There is no way I could have planned an international merger.”
With the onset of streaming in India, the show was ultimately ordered for Disney+ Hotstar, the streaming service that merged together the nascent Disney+ with Star India’s powerful Hotstar streamer in April 2020.
The challenge then became one Narain is more familiar with — making a script sing.
The original ABC series, which ran to five seasons, starred Emily VanCamp as Emily Thorne, a young woman who returns to an affluent Hamptons beach town to reek revenge on the families and people who did her wrong 20 years before. Madeleine Stowe played the iconic antagonist Victoria Grayson, a high society billionaire who clashes with Emily and attempts to ruin her life. Narain moved the action to the glamorous Alibaug near Mumbai, a coastal town habited by the super-rich.
Namrata Steth landed the Emily role, now called Karma Talwar, while Raveena Tandon landed the iconic Victoria role, playing Indrani Kothari. Like Tandon, Indrani was a 1990s Bollywood icon and is now a household name, though perhaps that’s where the similarities end. A trailer launched this week shows Karma throwing a knife through a picture of the Kothari family, saying: “In this story, no one will be forgiven,” as cutaways show Indrani standing before a party in shimmering blue dress holding a golden microphone, eyes piercing as she stares into the crowd before her.
Stowe was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her role, and the Indian series has given its lead the same chewy material to work with. “Revenge was possibly one of the first shows to get Madeline Stove, a film star who was put in this very pivotal role, and then the show was cast as it was,” said Narain. “We took a cue from that. Raveena Tandon has been a very big Bollywood star. Every Indian known her. Shes iconic, still looks like a million bucks, and is a powerhouse actor who I feel with a role like this has so much to sink her teeth into and showcase her charms — way more than she could in the 90s. The roles in 90s for women were not that layered.”
Narain said that roles for women in Indian entertainment has changed immeasurably since the beginning of the streaming era, which began in the country about seven years ago. That change was already underway but the entrance of Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, SonyLIV and others supercharged the cultural shift.
“When multiplexes came in, it gave rise to a lot of different kinds of content and films changed,” she said. “Women started getting better roles, but the advent of OTT took it to another level. It’s now really just about the content — though Raveena is a big star, and that brings in the audience, it’s content that takes it through. Some of the biggest OTT shows here didn’t have major stars attached at the beginning.”
Narain said that every time she is quizzed on what she sees from India’s content scene, she responds by saying it is “always a better time than it was before,” with more streamers spending on high-profile originals.
She recognised there is “some flux going on” in India — take, for example, Disney trying merge its assets with those of streaming rival Reliance Industries — and that the OTT market is going through a “little readjustment and self correction,” but added: “It’s all really exciting because creativity is flourishing.”
In the case of Karmma Calling, the key for Narain was ensuring the show was adapted in an Indian cultural context. The concept of karma is huge in the historically-spiritual India, so it was natural to change the name from Revenge and better reflect those local sensibilities.
Adaptation process
Narain and producer R.A.T. Studios were in contact with Disney Television Studios, which now incorporates Revenge maker ABC Studios, throughout the adaptation process. Some elements changed to suit the Indian audience. For example, there are no smartphones in Revenge, but this has been updated in Karmma Calling and social media relationships play a role in the plot. “There was no pushback from [Disney] on those sorts of things,” said Narain.
Other changes include trimming the series down from the 21-episode first season in the U.S. to seven, with Narain and R.A.T. hoping to go beyond the single run on Disney+ Hotstar. Costume, make-up and sets were given the Bollywood factor, louder and brighter than those in Karmma Calling‘s U.S. cousin.
The lavishness of the whole thing — and Narain’s obsession for the project — ultimately caused the director her biggest headache — almost literally.
“As filmmakers we are used to being exhausted and on our feet for 16 or 18 hours a day, going after the shot we want. But I’ve never had to do so many retakes for hair, make up and eyelashes out of place. The glamor is such an important part of the setting of this world. If not, the believability begins to wither.
“I found it excruciating. As others were getting their hair done, I was pulling mine out.”