Shefali Bhushan on Guilty Minds: ‘All the cases reach judgment within one episode which is the biggest creative liberty that we have taken’

For a very long time Shefali Bhushan wanted to bring compelling courtroom cases to the audience as she felt there were not many interesting legal dramas being made, and Shefali, who comes from an illustrious family of lawyers with her grandfathers, her father (Shanti Bhushan, former minister of law and justice), brother (Prashant Bhushan, public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court of India) decided to create and direct 10-episode series  Guilty Minds . Shefali drew on the experiences of her family to craft the legal drama that follows Kashaf and Deepak, two ambitious lawyers played by Shriya Pilgaonkar and Varun Mitra. Co-directed by Jayant Digambar Somalkar, the series also stars Namrata Sheth, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Satish Kaushik among others. “What inspired me is the fact that there are very interesting stories to be told in courtroom dramas, these are varied stories if you are following the format like we have done where in every episode we are tackling a different case, a different issue. We have got the opportunity to tell so many stories, it is equal to making almost five films, and then, of course, if there is anybody with more locus standi then let them stand up because there can be no filmmaker with more locus standi than I have, I have innumerable lawyers within the family. It was a natural progression from living with arguments and cases all my life,” says Shefali. Each of the 10 cases were carefully selected and researched by the writers’ room that consisted of Somalkar, Manav Bhushan (a non-practicing lawyer), Deeksha Gujral (a lawyer) and Shefali Bhushan. Shefali adds, “They are based on incidents and issues that we encounter, but they are all fictionalised. In a writers’ room, each person comes with their own experiences, interests and ideas, and some of those find their way into the script. So, when you are talking about what these 10 cases are about and how we went about selecting, that is the beauty of the writers’ room. Manav had his own favourites which were artificial intelligence, technology and science driven. Jayant is more into social issues, whereas, I had my own favourites like music and women issues.” Shefali believes when all the minds and resources are put together then one can come up with the best mix. She further adds, “What has also helped is the creative freedom in picking subjects which may not be conventionally safe. Then, the format helped us develop so many subplots, there are so many characters and there are very interesting arcs to each character. It is really a delight to be able to create so much connected content which can be carried on and on. This is a courtroom drama but it is also a very human drama, there are a lot of things that are happening in the show that are outside the court with personal lives of characters and human emotions.

“Research was an eye-opener,” says Varun Mitra, who plays Deepak Rana, a lawyer known for his theatrics while arguing cases. “I attended courts in Mumbai and Delhi and got the feel of the library, courtroom and cafeteria, but the real drama was in the Bombay trial court. I was lucky to watch some of the cases being argued in front of me. Some of the judges were taking jabs with the lawyers and there was one really interesting fellow who was a bit close to my character. He was kind of theatrical. Later on, we were told that he was the favourite amongst the judges and probably that is why he was walking around as if he owned the place. I sensed all that while researching my character. These were little things that added up to get into the shoes of Deepak Rana. Shefali wanted it to be very real. The challenge for me was to be slightly animated, energetic and larger-than-life that looked less like a caricature and more like a person who wants to win arguments rather than be a lawyer. He is anything and everything whether he was distracting the other lawyer or saying sweet nothings to the judge or flattering him… I just thought of him as a human and not take on the role of a lawyer and thus try to avoid the clichés,” says Varun, who is a fan of comedy drama television series like Boston Legal and Ally McBeal. Achieving authentic representation of the court proceedings and at the same time keeping it a bit dramatic and entertaining was one of the biggest challenges for the director. When asked how entertaining it can get in a courtroom, Shefali, who has heard umpteen number of stories from her family, says, “Courtroom goes from one end of the spectrum to the other. There are some courtrooms and lawyers who are extremely dull and inarticulate and they are probably reading out from their arguments. In such cases the process is very slow. On the other hand, there are these lawyers who are very flamboyant. They may adopt an accent for the sake of ‘performance’ in court because they want to impress the judge and everyone else present and that was my brief to the actors.” The director, however, is candid enough to accept that taking creative liberties was obviously inevitable to keep audiences’ interest alive. “There is no way to be 100 percent real. Maybe there is but that is not the route to take, not at least in this medium. It is definitely an entertaining show that you have to create. So, we have taken creative liberties because all our cases reach judgment within one episode which is the biggest creative liberty. I admit to being guilty of that,” Shefali concludes with a hearty laugh.