Haq Se is ALT Balaji’s new series starring Rajeev Khandelwal and Surveen Chawla.

ALT Balaji’s new series Haq Se stars the popular names like Rajeev Khandelwal and Surveen Chawla. The series has been inspired by the classic novel Little Women and has been produced by Manor Rama Pictures. In a conversation with Business Of Cinema, the producers Karan Raj Kohli and Viraj Kapur talked about the series and how it is going to be interesting.

Here are the excerpts from the interview:

1. Haq Se is your first on air project. So, how was the entire experience?
– Viraj: We have been there and working in the industry before this as well. So, the working experience was not very different. But the experience in terms of response, because this is the first project of ours that has come out for the people to see, has been very positive and very motivating. It has pumped us to work on our future projects in a certain way. Our vision has become very clear. Our goals in terms of how we want to represent our company, has become very clear. We are now very aligned with the industry. People recognise us. We have also started to judge people in the correct manner.

2. Karan your family background is that of the restaurateurs. And you are now into the entertainment industry, which are two very different fields. So, how come you developed an interest for this? What was the motivation or the source of inspiration for you?
– Karan: My family background is from the very old restaurant called Moti Mahal, which is based in Delhi. And the restaurant actually invented and is famous for Butter Chicken. Unfortunately, I am a vegetarian by birth. So, I have never eaten anything from the place ever. The restaurant does very well because of the non-veg food. So, naturally I had to develop interest towards something else, because food had never caught my interest. Media has always been my area of interest. I have grown up watching both national and international TV shows and films. I went to college also with this thing clear in mind that I want to do something in this field only.

3. Viraj, you had been studying about business and finances and have even worked for that industry. So, why this sudden change in the profession? What was your guiding force?
– Viraj: I have grown up on sets co-incidentally because my maternal grandfather used to own studio. It was the first independent studio outside the film city. It’s called the Khanna House. I used to spend a lot of time post school on the sets where my mom used to work with her dad. So I always had this inclination towards the creative arts. I have grown up in Juhu also, surrounded by many filmmakers and many talented people. So, it’s just been ingrained in me. Even though I studied business and finance, I got gravitated towards the creative arts.

4. How did you two decide to collaborate with each other?
– Viraj: Karan and I have been friends for over a decade now. When we started exploring about what we can do in films that was when we decided to start a company together. Initially he had started working with Balaji and Excel. And I was also looking for what I want to do in filmmaking- writing, direction or even acting. So we came to this conclusion that for now we should just be the storytellers.
– Karan: But interestingly, Viraj looks after all the creative things about the project like scripting or character development. Even though he has a business background, he is very creative. Whereas I, who has a filmmaking background, is very good with production. So I look after things where money and commercials are concerned. SO actually what we have studied has turned around and has become opposite of what we do. So, that’s the interesting part.

5. Haq Se, as we all know, has been inspired by the classic novel Little Women. So obviously the story is going to be somewhat similar. But still what is that thing that makes this web series unique in itself?
– Karan: The book was written almost 200 years back. So it was written in a way so as to gain interest of people of that decade. Right now, we obviously had to make it more pacier. We had to add a lot of masala, interesting characters. But the interesting part is that the essence of the story is still very much there, the characters of the four sisters are very much the same. This is a great evidence that time doesn’t change the human behaviour.

6. Would you like to share something interesting that happened while the course of making this series?
– Viraj: It wasn’t easy casting for this show. In order to get a cast as per the characters that look Kashmiri, they have to be not just good looking, but good actors as well. So the entire process was very lengthy. I keep saying that I was making a Kashmiri Game Of Thrones, because there was such a large cast. We were under the pre-production stage for a very long time.

7. Lastly, what are the future projects that you are venturing into?
– Viraj: We have a film in the pipeline which we are going to announce very soon. At Manor Rama, we want to cater classy content to the masses. We don’t want to do alienating concept. We just don’t want our content to be entertaining, we also want it to have a significant takehome. We want them to learn something. We are in talks with other digital platforms as well. Also, since we haven’t completed the entire book, so we have the season two of Haq Se, which isn’t finalised yet. But it is surely in discussion.