Filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar will be making his digital debut with a political thriller series called Tandav (Source: Instagram/aliabbaszafar). Filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar will be making his digital debut with a political thriller series called Tandav (Source: Instagram/aliabbaszafar).

Director Ali Abbas Zafar is set to venture into the digital space with Tandav, a political thriller series, penned by Article 15 co-writer Gaurav Solanki. The series will stream on Amazon Prime Video sometime next year.

In an interview with indianexpress.com, Gaurav spoke about the series and his experience so far with the Bharat director. He said, “I took a year to work on Tandav. Writing a series is akin to writing three-four feature films. I am really excited about it. We should start rolling this October.”

Tandav, which will be majorly shot in Delhi, is centred around the power corridors of Indian politics. “Along with it, there is also a story about an institute, which is on the lines of JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University). These two stories clash and so do their protagonists. One is a student activist and the other is a huge political leader.”

The drama thriller, with an ensemble cast, will have 11-12 primary characters with three-four parallel tracks running across eight episodes. “I wrote it before Article 15 and took one year to finish it. I didn’t write anything else during that time. I wrote three drafts for eight episodes,” Gaurav said.

It began with Ali’s one-page draft, which he discussed with Amazon Prime Video before Solanki stepped in and expanded it into a full-fledged series. “Ali had written one-pager, which he had discussed with Amazon. I came on board after that. For a series, that was just a seed. It had only four main characters. I brought in more. I had a writer’s room where I sat with two of my friends and we bounced ideas. But I wrote it completely.”

The writer said that he has a smooth working relationship with Ali. “Ali didn’t interfere with the writing. He let me do it, partially because, after some time, he developed complete trust in me. Also, he was very busy with Bharat. He is very good to work with. He is not stubborn and is open to suggestions. If you tell him that something can be done differently from what he thinks, he will not take offence. You can convince him easily.”

This will be Gaurav’s second project after his debut film Article 15, which has earned him glorious reviews. While he co-wrote the Ayushmann Khurrana and Zeeshan Ayyub-starrer with director Anubhav Sinha, Tandav is solely his voice. “It will be interesting to see how people react to it. Because it is the kind of story I want to tell, it is me. It’s going to be a big show, budget wise. Also, we are looking at some big names for the cast,” Gaurav concluded.

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