Giving a villain his due

In Suparn Varma’s shows, people are rarely just good or evil. As the lines blur, characters get more complicated, more compelling. And he ends up creating hit after hit

- Urvee Modwel

Suparn Varma doesn’t enjoy creating heroes. He’d rather create a flawed, more realistic character who doesn’t always go by the book, who is wracked by the same pangs of guilt that a fallen angel would. “I don’t see life in binary terms such as good and evil,” says the 40-year-old director and screenwriter. “It comes down to choices. Sometimes you make choices for yourself, which may be unfair to others; sometimes you make choices for others that are unfair to you. That’s how we live life. It’s a series of choices that we keep making.”

Those choices, and Varma’s preoccupation with good and evil, are what drive Rana Daggubatti in Rana Naidu and Samantha Prabhu in The Family Man. Varma wrote and directed The Family Man (2021-), he was also creative director on Rana Naidu (2023-) and directed Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai (2023). His new show, The Trial, an adaptation of the American courtroom drama, The Good Wife, stars Kajol and Jisshu Sengupta, and is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. Next up is Lootere, a Hansal Mehta show about an Indian ship hijacked in Somalian waters. In the works are an as-yet-untitled show and other projects that should keep him busy for the next couple of years.