Human: National award-winning actor Shefali Shah says I have never met or heard of a person like Dr. Gauri Nath

The OTT space seems to now be exploring medical thriller genres more. After Mumbai Diaries 26/11, yet another drama is gearing for its release. The series Human deals with illegal and unethical drug testing on humans. Directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah and Mozez Singh, the Disney+Hotstar series has a stellar cast that includes Shefali Shah, Kirti Kulhari, Vishal Jethwa, Ram Kapoor, Seema Biswas, Aditya Srivastava, Mohan Agashe, and others. 

Human is a fictional series that brings forth the collateral damage due to fast-tracked drug trials in a gripping tale that spins around innocent lives being lost to greed. The trailer of the series was out recently and it looks promising with stories that reveal the dark and twisted secrets of manipulation and dangerous ambition of the medical world. 

At a virtual press conference, the makers and actors spoke about their characters and the making of the series. This is the first project of the director Vipul Amrutlal Shah for an OTT platform. Talking about the series, he said, "Human has not been an easy story to bring to screen given its critical storyline that touches so many issues that are pertinent to today’s day and life. However, the super talented cast does an exemplary work of perfectly portraying the characters. They make you love and hate the characters in equal measure." His co-director and writer on the project Mozez Singh added that the series tells the story of greed, deceit and class and working on the script helped him realise the other side of the medical world where people in power plot against the vulnerable sections of the society.   

The series explores themes like medical malpractice, trauma, murder, the value of human life, medical malpractice, class divide, and the fatal ramifications of fast-paced medical science. It revolves around the ambitious Dr. Gauri Nath, one of the country’s top neurosurgeons, played by Shefali Shah and her successful protege, Dr. Saira Sabjawal (Kirti Kulhari) whose lives go topsy-turvy after a shocking discovery. Speaking about her character, Shefali Shah said that Dr. Gauri Nath is a pandora box of all that one can and can not imagine. "I have never met nor heard of a person like her. She’s complicated and unpredictable. She is one of the most challenging characters I’ve played because we have absolutely nothing in common," she said adding that she chose to play it differently and in an unexpected way. "She’s a gamble, a risk I’ve taken. And she’s pushed me out of my comfort zone. I hope my portrayal of her opens the audience’s mind to indecipherable characters like her. And the show opens our eyes to what actually happens when doctors who are considered Gods actually start playing God,” she said.

Kirti Kulhari is excited to see the kind of reactions the series will get upon its release. She has always found thrillers intriguing and interesting. She said that she would go through the script for hours with Shefali Shah to understand and perfect the role of Dr. Saira. "The script demanded a lot of silent acting and reacting where only our face and body language would be used to express. Pinning those complex scenes was hard but Vipul Amrutlal Shah and Mozez Singh’s direction helped us through. I really hope Human receives a lot of love and appreciation because a lot of blood and sweat has gone into crafting it,” she said. 

The series has been penned by Mozez Singh and Ishani Banerjee and has been produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah under the banner of Sunshine Pictures. Human will be available on Disney+ Hotstar from January 14, 2022, in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali.