Bollywood’s one of the most critically acclaimed actresses, Radhika Apte has made a place for herself in not just the Indian film industry but also the digital streaming space – Netflix.
After Sacred Games, Netflix is here with another original Indian series, Ghoul. Directed by Patrick Graham, the series stars Radhika Apte and Manav Kaul in lead roles. Ghoul is set in a dystopian near-future, in an India that’s suffering from intense conflict. But the focus of the story is the basement of a covert detention centre in the middle of nowhere, which is operating in a grey legal area, holding prisoners who have no recourse to legal help. Apte plays Nida Rahim one of the interrogators of the remote military interrogation centre. Ali Saeed, who has been captured and brought to the interrogation centre is no ordinary prisoner. Saeed has some supernatural powers, which will make Nida’s task more difficult.
“I was very, very intrigued and very excited by the way Patrick has written the entire series, and the way he was seeing everything,” Kaul adds. “I thought this kind of horror I haven’t experienced here in India – this is something absolutely new for everyone including me – and I really wanted to be part of this.” Kaul plays the character, a colonel named Sunil Dacunha.
When asked if Ghoul could offend anyone, Patrick said, “Our intention is not to really offend people. I don’t think it’s offensive to find torture, fascist governments, lack of social and political freedom to be distasteful. I think those are fair enough things to be critical about. So I don’t really see why people would take offence.” He added, “It’s certainly not aimed at anybody in particular, it’s not aimed at any government. It’s anti-certain ways of thinking.”
Ghoul is co-produced by Anurag Kashyap’s Phantom Films and American production house Blumhouse Productions that is behind popular Hollywood horror films like Get Out, Sinister and Insidious