Writer Devika Bhagat shares details on Four More Shots Please! (Season 3) and Shehar Lakhot

Writer Devika Bhagat has worked on the features Manorama Six Feet Under (2007), Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008) and Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012), the television show Mahi Way, the anthology Unpaused and the web-series Four More Shots Please!

Her latest project is the Amazon Prime Video anthology Modern Love: Mumbai, where she wrote the episode directed by Nupur Asthana, Cutting Chai. Bhagat was also a consultant writer on the anthology.

The screenwriter was a panellist on the RoundTable, moderated by Priyanka Sharma and hosted by social media platform Khul Ke, where she opened up about her career, working on different mediums and genres, and finding her stride in the digital space with Modern Love: Mumbai and her other upcoming projects.

Bhagat shared some details about two of her upcoming shows Shehar Lakhot, which is currently under production, and Four More Shots Please! (Season 3), which is due to arrive in the second half of the year.

She said the characterization of women in Shehar Lakhot is very different from that of the upcoming season of Four More Shots Please! Bhagat said, "Characterization depends on the kind of women you are writing about, their economic status, social status, and where they are located, amongst other things. For instance, Shehar Lakhot is a story set in Udaipur. It is a story, set in a small fictitious town where women have a completely different outlook toward life than those in Four More Shots Please! The women protagonist in Shehar Lakhot does not face the same issues as the women in Four More Shots Please!”

Shehar Lakhot has been created by Bhagat and Navdeep Singh. The series stars Priyanshu Painyuli, Shruthy Menon, Chandana Roy Sanyal and Kubbra Sait. It follows a man who reluctantly returns to his hometown where he not only battles his past demons but also gets drawn into an even bigger cesspool of smoke and mirrors and must now prove his innocence.

“If we are writing about privileged women in Four More Shots Please!, they are privileged because they have access to the things that 90% of women in this country do not have access to,” she added.

The writer disclosed, "Expect a lot of emotions from the third season of Four More Shots Please! Even the seasons are going through arcs!”

Bhagat began working as a second assistant director but switched to writing later. Speaking about her path and her association with Yash Raj Films, Bhagat said, “I graduated from the film school at NYU [New York University] and came to Mumbai to become a director around 2002-2003. Life, however, had certain other plans for me. I was struggling to get work as an AD and had to earn to pay my bills.”

She was friends with actor Abhay Deol, who was also struggling for a break. She also filmmaker Imitiaz Ali through Deol and was due to co-write a film with him that never happened.

“During this journey, I happened to visit the Yash Raj Films office to narrate a script which again did not culminate,” she said. “It was Arjun Sablok through whom I met Aditya Chopra, who had read my previous script. He then narrated a one-liner and asked me to develop it. That’s how Bachna Ae Haseeno was born.”

"Aditya Chopra does not need narrations,” Bhagat shared of the YRF head honcho. “He is one of those who reads scripts and has feedback sessions, which I love because I hate giving narrations. Years after Bachna Ae Haseeno, Aditya Chopra offered me to co-write Jab Tak Hain Jaan and I said a yes to it only because I thought I would be able to work with Yash Chopra but that did not happen as Yashji was not keen to work on it. My association with Yash Raj Films has been an enjoyable and memorable one.”

Bhagat ended the panel by advising all the aspiring writers to always listen to their voice, take feedback and judgment but always be true to themselves. She urged them to write what they know and follow their instincts.

Bhagat also commented, “You should not tell female writers to stick to a particular genre. Female writers can write any genre, just like male writers.”