"Paatal Lok Is A Massive Validation," Says Producer Anushka Sharma

Swastika Mukherjee in a still from Paatal Lok (courtesy primevideoin)

Anushka Sharma's latest production, Amazon Prime show Paatal Lok, is getting a whole lot of love from viewers and great reviews from critics. Anushka, who is "overwhelmed" with the response, said in a statement what her goal has always been as a young producer: "I'm overwhelmed with the love and adulation that audiences and critics have showered on our labour of love Paatal Lok. The success of Paatal Lok is because of its content. In today's day and age, superlative content is truly the most important yardstick and Karnesh and I, at Clean Slate Films, have always looked to give audiences something that they might have never seen before."

Anushka and her brother Karnesh co-founded Clean Slate Films in 2013 and 2015 film NH10 was their first production. Anushka said in her initial days as a producer, she predicted a change in the audiences' choice for realistic content, which eventually led her to produce Paatal Lok: "As a producer who is also an actor, I have only tried to entertain through innovative, highly engaging and clutter-breaking storytelling. Karnesh and I realised quite early that content landscape was going to witness a massive change as we get more and more exposed to global content and I have tried to bring my learnings on this as an actor at play with Karnesh at Clean Slate Films."

"Despite being a young production house, we have stuck our neck out and thankfully our instinctive content choices have stood out. It has been a huge learning experience for all of us at Clean Slate Films as we have taken baby steps into having a razor-sharp focus on content curation. The success of Paatal Lok is a massive validation of our beliefs, planning and curation strategies," Anushka added.

Anushka assigned credit for the show's success to the entire team, saying: "We share this incredible moment with our entire team, who have shared our vision and taught us many things in the process. Paatal Lok's creator Sudip Sharma has been the captain of the team, leading from the front. It is his brilliance that has captured the underbelly from a lens that's unique, inspiring and discomforting."

Anushka, who previously worked with director Prosit Roy in Pari, added: "The directors of the show Prosit Roy and Avinash Arun Dhaware have starkly and breathtakingly brought alive the rawness of the script on screen and our exceptionally talented cast led by Jaideep Ahlawat, Neeraj Kabi, Abhishek Banerjee and the likes of Swastika Mukherjee, Niharika, Jagjeet, Gul Panag, Ishwak Singh, Asif Basra, among others have poured their hearts out to translate the magic of script to screen."

Pataal Lok is a thrilling series spread out over nine episodes and tracks the story of a worn-out Delhi cop, a high profile journalist and four suspects in a conspiracy to murder case.