News18 Showsha Reel Awards are back after a short hiatus, and they promise to be bigger, better and grander. This year, the awards will celebrate the growing bond between the world of over-the-top (OTT) platforms and the Hindi film industry, as we honour all achievers and stars on February 25 (Saturday) in Mumbai. The awards will bring together the greatest talents of Bollywood and the OTT platforms under one roof, for the first time.
OTT has been a gamechanger for the Indian entertainment landscape, especially, in the post Covid-19 era where the audience has gravitated towards web series and shows as opposed to mainstream cinema. This transition has allowed some deft filmmakers and directors to expand their creative horizons and flesh out intriguing stories to captivate the audiences.
The nominees for the Best Director Web Series (Popular Choice) are:
Raj and DK, Supam Varma (The Family Man 2): The second season of the hit spy-thriller show was a captivating roller-coaster ride that served as a true successor to its preceding season. Raj and DK along with Supam Varma based their story in the backdrop of resurgence of Tamil rebels who’ve been driven out of Sri Lanka long after the civil war and are at the cusp planning something big on the Indian soil. The show had everything from crisp and clever dialogues to power-packed performances by Manoj Bajpayee, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Sharib Hashmi, Priyamani, Sunny Hinduja, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Ashlesha Thakur and others. The single-take sequences, ample comic moments and entertaining sequences peppered across the show made it a hit.
Ram Madhvani, Vinod Rawat and Kapil Sharma (Aarya 2)– Ram Madhvani, Vinod Rawat and Kapil Sharma took their crime-thriller drama a notch higher with the second season of Aarya. The tale of a doting but fearless mother took a dark turn when Aarya (played by Sushmita Sen) found herself even deeper in the reeking muck of the drug mafia. The directors’ treatment of the series and their utilisation of a talented actress like Sushmita Sen set it apart from other shows in the same genre. They instilled a foreboding, eerie and unsettling quotient in their viewers and multiplied it with shocking twists and turns. The directors also impressively incorporated musical cues to make the scenes more vibrant and fleshed out a speckless overview of flawed character traits.
Vipul Shah(Human): For someone like Vipul Shah to make his debut in the OTT scene and that too with a unique story like Human — a horrific underbelly of drug trials and illegal nexus between pharmaceutical companies and hospitals at the traumatizing expense of unsuspecting individuals – deserves credit. The medical-thriller featured Shefali Shah in a dark and brooding role accompanied by great performances from Kirti Kulhari, Vishal Jethwa, Ram Kapoor, Mohan Agashe, Seems Biswas and Aditya Srivastav. Shah’s sensitivity towards the subject of drug test and realistic portrayal of characters makes him a true contender.
Prakash Jha(Aashram 3): Bobby Deol’s Aashram remained a consistent hit from its first season. Prakash Jha’s expertise in socio-political films lent the edge to this crime drama as well. The story about a self-proclaimed Godman under the garb of shrewd and power-hungry conman and his brush with the law and the justice system made for an interesting watch, especially with its dramatic way of storytelling and the ample amount of moments heavy on entertainment and exhilaration. The show starred Bobby Deol as Baba Nirala, along with a stellar cast of Chandan Roy Sanyal, Aaditi Pohankar, Darshan Kumaar, Adhyayan Suman, Anupriya Goenka and Sachin Shroff, among others.
Abhay Pannu(Rocket Boys): Abhay Pannu did justice to the biographical accounts of the contribution made by Homi J Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai in this well-made series, The Rocket Boys. The show that is shouldered by a meticulous cast of Jim Sarbh, Ishwak Singh, Regina Cassandra, Saba Azad, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Namit Das took you into the lives of the two scientific luminaries of the country that heralded the Indian Nuclear Programme and their covetous journey through obstacles and pitfalls. Under Pannu’s direction, the series not only garnered love from the audience but the critics too.
Ajitpal Singh(Tabbar): The nail-biting thriller Tabbar helmed by Ajitpal Singh boasted of a vicious storyline, a sacrosanct narrative enshrined in the portrayal of dark and griity dynamics of a family and the trial and tribulations they go through at the disposal of diabolical circumstances that brew in a familial setting. Ajitpal Singh’s merit with the show lied in his pragmatic methodology towards his character sketches that didn’t fall in the ambit of black or white. He amplified the greyer shades and made sure that his show kept the audience glued to the edge of their seat. Tabbar was headlined by Supriya Pathak, Pawan Malhotra, Ranvir Shorey, Kanwaljit Singh, Gagan Arora, Sahil Mehta and others.
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