Director Abhishek Chaubey has been signed by Junglee Pictures to helm a crime drama that will be released online. Titled DusAssi, the web series explores a social order that allows gruesome crimes to become commonplace. It has been written by Shantanu Srivastava and Akshat Ghildial.
DusAssi is based on the true incidents of the sale of rape videos in the by-lanes and local markets (mobile phone and paan shops) of Uttar Pradesh at throwaway prices, ranging from Rs20 to Rs200. It follows the journey of a software engineer-turned-vigilante against the dark intersection of technology and sex crimes in a patriarchal society.
Chaubey is excited to helm content that is not limited by time. "Indian audiences have now developed a taste for streaming platforms and they are enjoying a different kind of entertainment from them. What attracts me as a filmmaker is that it gives me the opportunity to tell stories in the long format. We are restricted by a two or two-and-a-half hour length in cinema, because of which we structure our story in a certain way. Whereas in this format, I have much more time to explore characters, plots, themes, and all the narratives. It’s very interesting, purely from a craft perspective for me," Chaubey said in a statement.
Chaubey is clearly fascinated by gangsters. He wrote the screenplay for Vishal Bhardwaj's Omkara (2006) and Kaminey (2009), and then turned director with the comedies Ishqiya (2010) and Dedh Ishqiya (2014) set in Uttar Pradesh. His next film Sonchiriya has Sushant Singh Rajput playing a dacoit. DusAssi is set in western Uttar Pradesh.
"This is a story set in western UP. I have been to western UP before. I wrote Omkara, which was set there. But this is a different world from Omkara. DusAssi is set in the urban areas of western UP, in towns like Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Moradabad. It is not set in the rural areas, but it is definitely rooted,” added Chaubey.
Commenting on DusAssi, Priti Shahani, president, Junglee Pictures said, "DusAssi traces a remorseful real-life event that took place in UP. When I first read news on this and discussed it Shantanu Srivastava and Akshat Ghildial – also the writers of our next film, Badhaai Ho — we were convinced that this narrative had to be designed for the web. We are glad to have Abhishek on-board who is equally committed to telling this thought-provoking story with us to the digital audiences.”
No cast or release date has been announced as of now.