75 years of Independence: Disney+ Hotstar’s Unheard offers a rare insight into the common man’s fight for freedom

For a filmmaker, it’s hard to resist the temptation to tell the story of Independence through a larger-than-life figure and look at the country through his eyes, his internal and external conflicts. It’s a safe approach that finds takers, both among producers and audiences. In the name of patriotic dramas and films on national events, that’s the idea that Telugu filmmakers have sold to audiences over the years

However, Disney+ Hotstar’s Unheard, the streaming giant’s first-ever Telugu show, was a breath of fresh air. The KV Aditya directorial was the first-of-its-kind conversational drama in the digital space that depicted the idea of freedom with common folk occupying centerstage. Moreover, it captured the ambience of the pre-independence era in Hyderabad, a city that has hardly found a place in stories based on the freedom struggle.

The story unfolds through a medico Chalapathi, whose perspective of independence and the country evolves over the years with diverse experiences and intense conversations. From a staunch Gandhian like Padma to a hot-blooded Badri to a wise world war veteran Mallesh to a stubborn police officer Satyanarayana and Nizam-era loyalist Anwar, the hard-hitting show casts a spotlight on contrasting approaches to freedom, what works for them and what doesn’t.

At the end of Unheard, you aren’t merely entertained but come out enriched and well-informed too. The show does a fine job of observing, raising awareness and critiquing various ideologies through drama and captivating performances. Unlike today, where the nature of debates has become binary, Unheard is refreshing, for it shows how one can mutually respect one another even in disagreement. That’s essentially the story of India too.

With the country completing 75 years of Independence, we talk to the writer-director of Unheard, KV Aditya, his motivation behind making the show and his idea of India in the times to come...

What essentially pushed you to document the story of a common man’s fight against the British?

Every other filmmaker wants to make a heroic jump for the leader and most stories around them are given a large canvas and are even well known, and documented. There’s no real necessity or motivation for a common man to come to the forefront and die for the nation. There’s neither any legacy he’s trying to leave behind nor a pension he’s seeking from the government.

So many people who died during the freedom struggle didn’t even know the meaning of independence then. That is an iron will, they have no clue of what the world would be like after attaining freedom but still fought for it. A leader, when he does that, at least, has the satisfaction of having a few followers behind him. There’s something in the struggle for the leader but nothing for the public.

Have we made progress as a nation since the timeline you’ve depicted in the show? Is there any scope for optimism?

I am very optimistic about the country. I think India is one of the most glaringly crazy experiments in the world. You cannot throw in 1.3 billion people in one country and ask them to survive. Any other country that’s as populated as ours is China, that’s surviving on autocracy. We are still a democracy that’s surviving and a great experiment that the world has seen and will ever see. Sociologically, it’s a miracle that we’re together for over 75 years.

There may be 1.3 billion problems in the country and it’ll take time to solve them. We are still learning as a democracy. India was declared a socialist, secular and sovereign republic under Indira Gandhi but the founding fathers of the nation didn’t intend our country to tread that path. Ambedkar too had once said that the future generations will decide what the country is for them.

How did you steer the conversations of these (not so) citizens in Unheard, especially when you haven’t lived through those times and may not know their ideas concretely?

The basic idea for me was to build that conflict and the clash of ideologies. All these multiple ideologies were gifted to us in the last 75 years and I had to put myself into the shoes of these people when such ideas were evolving. I had to begin by learning about these ideologies in the first place. Before you understand an ideology, there are many questions you may have - they became my opposing ends in the conversations.

The conflict came from the ideologies and driving that forward was the drama. I always set up a situation where the question is about life and death. There’s death knocking on your door but I still got them to discuss ideologies. These people are superheroes and maniacs in their own way. Had they seen today’s India, some of them would’ve been happy and some may not be. It’s never going to be perfect for anyone but will be good enough for everyone.

(Unheard, created by KV Aditya, starring Srinivas Avasarala, PriyadarshiPulikonda, Ajay, Baladitya, Chandini Chowdary, and Ananda Chakrapani, produced by Radhika Lavu under Ellanar Films, is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar)