‘Auction’ thriller

Illustration/Uday Mohite

I'm adding a new word to the streaming lexicon - it's SLO TT.

When it comes to web series, it's the ‘slow burn' shows that get me. The gradual unfurling of a murder, where suspects keep adding up. Therefore, when you combine ‘Slow Burn' and OTT you get - SLO TT.

Into this genre you add ‘Nordic Noir', murders set in the bleak landscapes of Scandinavia - the snow bound Reykjavik terrain in The Valhalla Murders and Copenhagen being backdrop for The Chestnut Man. Bodies are found frozen in icy Icelandic waters or abandoned in the vast Danish countryside.

The key to the SLO TT is the gradual unfolding of the plot, the screenplay takes its time, not only because of the eight-episode format, but edge-of-the-seat mysteries usually have close-to-the-edge-detectives, finding killers while they find themselves - broken men and women, mending their shattered past while seeking justice in the present.

The Mare of Easttown defined the genre, with Kate Winslet as a tired cop, finding a killer in a sleepy Pennsylvania town. And American Rust has a pill-popping Jeff Daniels looking for his killer in a similar town. If Iceland has their snow, India has its mountains and hill stations.

I have my first story idea, an eight-episode series with a lengthy pilot - it's called ‘BULLY BHAI'. I'm hoping a platform approves the concept, if not I will approach you, dear readers, for crowdfunding.

Here's a synopsis with my wish-list cast (in brackets) - set in the present, Sajeda Rahim (Tabu) runs a small newspaper, printed out of a small press, started by her father in Dongri (in the 1960s). She has a broken past, married off at a young age, her husband is killed in an encounter with police, she manages to get by with a limited reader subscription.

One morning, she wakes up, horrified to find her profile and photo uploaded on an app called ‘BULLY BHAI' - along with a bunch of other women, some actresses, some journalists, activists, lawyers, all of them feisty, but all of them ‘framed'. Crucially all of them are ‘listed for sale' at an on-line ‘auction' - Sajeda makes contact with five of these women, who decide to take matters into their own hands and investigate - the women, apart from Sajeda are: Taahira Beg, a human rights lawyer (Vidya Balan), Tehzeeb Rajkotwalla, a stand up comedienne (Alaya F), Tabassum K, a performance artist-cum-poet (Bhumi Pednekar), a model (Saiyami Kher) and Taaira, an actress and outspoken public speaker (Tapsee Pannu).

As they plan their POA, the Mumbai police tracks down the cyber criminals in distant Uttarakhand and Bengaluru - to everyone's stunned dismay, it is teenagers behind this heinous cyber crime - there is much public discourse about their motive, especially when it is discovered that the mastermind is a 18-year-old girl. The six female protagonists are unable to come to terms that three teenagers would solely be behind this travesty. Then a 30-year-old engineer from Muzaffarnagar, rears his head claiming to be the real mastermind. He's taken into custody, but controls this cyber crime from behind bars.

The women divide forces and head to Bengaluru, Dehradun and Muzaffarnagar.

That is all I can divulge at the present time. Some of the questions that lie ahead in "BULLY BHAI" - Who is this man? What are his motives? Does he work for a higher power? Or alone? What dangers await these brave women as they try to uncover the truth? And finally who will I cast as my antagonist? My wish list actors are Rajkummar Rao and Vicky Kaushal.

That'll all for now as I head to write the screenplay.

Over and out, dear reader.

Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com