Writer Radhika's tweets about grey character!

anshvi thumbnail
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Posted: 6 years ago
#1
Hello all

Today and even yesterday we had a discussion on Twitter with screenplay writer Radhika

And i am not sure if I agree at all with what she considers grey...but I do appreciate that she indulged in the discussion and I hope she in future will study about what grey characters really mean

I am sharing the link here...u all can read her and our views and give ur feedback if u like

https://mobile.twitter.com/radhikaanand66

As per her:

1. Grey is that person who think he is justified in his actions...Ranvir thinks that he is justified in whatever he is doing hence he is grey. The moment a character things he is wrong he becomes black.

My view- every criminal is justified in his head about the crime he commits...a serial killer thinks he is justified in killing people , a terrorist thinks he is fighting for a greater cause...this doesn't make then grey !

Grey is when viewers find it difficult to judge whether a character is right or wrong, positive or negative, they find it difficult to decide whether he is categorically evil or not...when viewers have mixed feelings about the character...that is grey !

When the character doesn't cross that line that a negative character will.

For e.g. : Ranvir broke that thief's hand but admitted him in the hospital and deposited 50 lacs in his account..that is grey

When Ranvir slapped Aanchal..that was black


2. She said Maya was grey..She specifically asked me about Maya

My view - she was grey initially and later transformed into a black character when she killed innocents!

One important thing for Beyhadh viewers - Radhika said that Maya killed from the beginning and killed innocents from the beginning..It is just that she had a sad childhood that many sympathised with.

My view - I told her that Mauritious pandit death was never revealed in the show though it was obvious...also her sad childhood made many sympathise with her but could never justify her actions.


3. She said that Ranvir cares for Aanchal and he is doing everything for love which makes him grey

My view- caring doesn't mean physically hurting someone and behaving like an obsessive lover...if he can physically hurt Aanchal and Kabir or anyone else then that makes him negative and not black...pen can't say that Shahrukh cared for Juhi in Darr...it was obsession and not care !


4. She asked what is complex grey as per us

My view- the same as I explained above...there are many nice replies to her question which are worth reading.


5. As per her grey means when a lot of black is mixed with little white

My view- grey is when there is equal amounts of both...and as Sanya pointed out- grey is made when more white is mixed with less black and not the other way round...little white won't make a difference.

So, all in all this is exactly where the makers have failed in my opinion...they have failed to understand what a grey character really means...what they are writing and showing is a negative character and they think that is what grey is...So, when they said Ranvir is grey they didn't realise that is not what a grey character is...Sigh !


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Suchi_Ejf_fan thumbnail
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Posted: 6 years ago
#2
Currently ranvir is behaving like a psycho lover not a grey character
I think They didn't know the difference between grey character and a villain
spnfan thumbnail
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Posted: 6 years ago
#3
jab writers or makers ke thinking hi aise ho toh india serials ka kuch nahi ho sakta. its better to remake international shows like p.o.w and dil sambhal jaa zara instead of bringing 'hatke' shows.. indians makers ki original content se acha copy kiya hua maal hai๐Ÿ˜•
anshvi thumbnail
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Posted: 6 years ago
#4

Originally posted by: spnfan

jab writers or makers ke thinking hi aise ho toh india serials ka kuch nahi ho sakta. its better to remake international shows like p.o.w and dil sambhal jaa zara instead of bringing 'hatke' shows.. indians makers ki original content se acha copy kiya hua maal hai๐Ÿ˜•


Did u watch P.O.W. ? One of the best shows on TV...in a league of it's own
spnfan thumbnail
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Posted: 6 years ago
#5

Originally posted by: anshvi


Did u watch P.O.W. ? One of the best shows on TV...in a league of it's own

i have seen it here and there and kind of knows the out line story. from whatever i have seen the show was a class apart. amazing acting and direction. that show won some international tv award in korean and the guy who played imaan won best actor. i guess that might have been a rare case for indian shows to win international critics awards
anshvi thumbnail
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Posted: 6 years ago
#6

Originally posted by: spnfan

i have seen it here and there and kind of knows the out line story. from whatever i have seen the show was a class apart. amazing acting and direction. that show won some international tv award in korean and the guy who played imaan won best actor. i guess that might have been a rare case for indian shows to win international critics awards


It was amazing show and won many international awards..Satyadeep Mishra who played Imaan won best actor...Nikhil adwani best director...and several other awards.

But my fav was Sid aka Sadiq played by Anurag Sinha who played a very complex character and was the fav of most of us...that character was neither positive nor negative nor grey...He was very human and very tragic

His journey was from a 20 year old young Indian soldier who was free spirited into a tortured prisoner of war into a 36 year old man called Sadiq who was as calm and deep and an ocean.

Sid suffered from Stockholm syndrome and despite being a soldier at heart he died with a tag of a terrorist

It was a heartbreaking journey and Anurga played every emotion, every shade with such perfection which I have not seen been on TV before.

A must watch !
47AL thumbnail
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Posted: 6 years ago
#7
So Sameer Arora and Radhika are the people who penned Haasil script - story, screenplay and dialogues..๐Ÿ˜Š Ofcourse main characters and story are their brain child and as fiction writers they have an own imaginary world which they tried putting on paper which a technical team has been translating into a visual piece of work on camera with able help of performing artists. This co-ordination if executed well and when it makes audiences deeply drawn into their make believable world and when they get connected to the backdrops and behaviors of main characters is where a show/movie gets maximum outreach and will be able to sustain its run period.

Majority TV watching Indian audiences go by promos, initial launch interviews and then when a daily fiction show starts telecast its the content and characters that depict what show is all about or what it can turn out to be within the first few weeks of episodes and then based on ongoing promos..Once a section of audience gets disengaged then after that they don't easily get back into TV shows based on what producers, writers and directors keep defending about their show or characters or plot lines on social media.. sorry pls they need to get it right that its the content shown in actual episodes that has to speak on behalf of them and reflect their vision.


As creative writers Radhika or Sameer will be passionate about and also will out rightly defend their body of work using all means, that too when the show is still on air..its understandable.๐Ÿ˜ณ

But how much % of hindi fiction show watching TV audiences be it from urban, semi urban, small town or rural regions are active on social media? and how many out of them follow Haasil updates on online forums like IF or on twitter or insta or FB and how many know who are the writers, producers and directors of this show?? just asking?? ๐Ÿ˜•


There is a clear cut line that distinguishes grey, negative and pitch dark characters in TV fiction shows which majority audiences may possibly have been pre-conditioned over the years!


So it sounds rather silly when obsessed pyscho killers in fiction stories who are shown creepy and cringe worthy onscreen often get mis-quoted by some people as 'grey' characters to grab attention without properly pondering on how 'grey' characters actually function..๐Ÿ˜›anyhow such characters don't even come close to the word grey as they are pitch dark and more than normal villains..


spnfan thumbnail
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Posted: 6 years ago
#8

Originally posted by: anshvi


It was amazing show and won many international awards..Satyadeep Mishra who played Imaan won best actor...Nikhil adwani best director...and several other awards.

But my fav was Sid aka Sadiq played by Anurag Sinha who played a very complex character and was the fav of most of us...that character was neither positive nor negative nor grey...He was very human and very tragic

His journey was from a 20 year old young Indian soldier who was free spirited into a tortured prisoner of war into a 36 year old man called Sadiq who was as calm and deep and an ocean.

Sid suffered from Stockholm syndrome and despite being a soldier at heart he died with a tag of a terrorist

It was a heartbreaking journey and Anurga played every emotion, every shade with such perfection which I have not seen been on TV before.

A must watch !

i saw the finale episode and was so sad that purab's character died. i remember i googled about anurag after seeing him on pow.
every actor in that show was very good.
arshi_asya thumbnail
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Posted: 6 years ago
#9
Makers obviously live in their own world here who don't know the difference between some of the key factors. There is so much exposure now in entertainment because of Internet that people have a variety of shows catered to them with all sort of characters.
Mixing a little white with black will not affect the blackness. It will still be somewhat black. But mixing even a little bit black with white will turn the color grey.

It's difficult to indulge with grey characters since you can neither love them nor hate them. Because usually people have clear-cut definition for white aka good & black aka bad.

SRK of Baazigar was grey because you can;t love him for murders he committed but you can't hate given his back history.

Case is different here. Ranvir never confessed his feelings to Aanchal, so she never knew & there was no rejection at all. So, there is no reason for Ranvir to claim Aanchal as his sole, personal property. Ranvir was always a friend to her. Aanchal is a human after all entitled to her emotions & feelings. Or do makers think that if a girl cries on a guy's shoulder or apologize to him or is being sweet to him normally or is being thankful to him, then it gives the guy a license to presume that the girl in in love with him & now he owns her. Aanchal enticed Kabir with Bikni but never did she do anything like that in front of Ranvir. It was rather a professional and friendly relation. So, this obsession is not grey, it is utterly dark one.

I don't know if anyone has watched American shows like TVD, The originals, Teen Wolf, etc.
Klaus is the best grey character. He is not a nice man, everyone agrees to that. You can't trust him a bit but yet you can never hate him for what he did in the entire series. Similarly, Katherine Pierce was the most selfish of all the characters in TVD, still she isn't hated for being bitchy all the time.

Watch House of Cards, Game of Thrones, etc. to understand the definition of white, grey, dark, negative & pitch-black characters.
Ramsay, Joffrey, Euron were in-out negative, people absolutely hated.
Cersei, Lord Baelish, etc. these are all the absolute grey characters. People don't love them but they aren't hated either.

Malcolm Merlyn from The Arrow is a grey character.

Although there is no comparison between Ranvir & those characters but then again, grey-shade of a person is defined by the decisions taken in a situation. The decisions which are taken to fulfill personal objectives but they don't hurt the overall in the bigger picture.

What Ranvir was doing in the office in Friday episode is somewhat grey (but it would have been completely grey if Kabir's insult wasn't planned but rather spontaneously happened with Ranvir being silent spectator to that).


In Indian context, if you want to see a grey character, then watch Ishq mein Mar Jawan. Arjun Bijlani as Deep probably is playing the best Grey character TV has seen till date. You can't love him for his past actions & you can't hate him either for what he did afterwards for Arohi. His character Deep was white washed in initial episodes, then they turned him dark (not negative), then it turned white & now again heading towards a dark tone. There is so much unpredictability in his character. The moment you think the show is heading there & this is his true character, makers introduce a twist & leave you wondering what now. That is the thriller in true sense, where you can't predict what is going to happen next. Where storyline is not cliched. Deep's character is the essence of that thrill since Tara is negative & Arohi is positive. Ishq mein Marjawan sort of concept probably has not been shown on the TV in a long time (at least not in a decade). The writers do understand the basics properly & that's what they are giving us.

I don't know why are 2 writers even trying to justify Ranvir's character at all when he has been marked with black stamp already. It's no use now, deadly damage has already been done now. No matter what happens, the last week's scenes can't be erased. For me that behavior, slapping your newly wedded wife, abducting her is redeemable. Other's I can take but not these two.
arshi_asya thumbnail
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Posted: 6 years ago
#10
Also I would call Maya an in-out dark character & never a grey character. She had no conscience at all. Murdering Ashwin was justified because he was being equally terrible to her. But for rest, she was dark.
Just a small example to highlight difference between grey, dark & white characters-
Suppose my I'am A. A has a best friend B. A likes a guy C & B knows about it. Incidentally, B & C get into relationship, A comes to know about it from others & not B directly or maybe from B but later.
A is left heartbroken because of obvious reasons but she masks it with acceptance for B & C relationship.

Scenario 1- A doesn't try to break B & C apart with conspiracies. (A is white)

Scenario 2- B & C get into a fight & A gets to act as a mediator & has to resolve it. She does exactly the same without any malice & they get back together. ( A is white). If she doesn't resolve it but rather create more complications indirectly (A is grey).

Scenario 3- A comes to know of little secret of either B. If she hides it from the C (A is white). But if she indirectly tells it to C, causing a break apart & then use this opportunity to get close to C as a friend. (A is grey).

Scenario 4- If A behaves negatively with killing B. (then A is dark). If A knowingly creates dreadly mis-understanding between B & C or tries to break them withhook & crook (then A is negative)

So, basically grey is nothing but an opportunist who uses a vulnerable situation to his/her advantage & goal. That's it.

And since many of do it on regular basis & never reveal it to anyone, and that makes all of us grey. But we don't cross the line in doing so, and that doesn't make us negative & dark.
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