Gul Panag On ‘Good Bad Girl’: It Is A Genre Redefining Show With Women Leads In A Completely Different Perspective

During a conversation with Outlook, Gul revealed the reason behind giving her nod to the show, and said, “I completed my law degree a month prior to when the show was offered to me. So, I was intrigued by the part. Secondly, the show was being produced by Vikas Bahl, and since he reached out to me, I instantly said yes.”

Further explaining the characters and the premise of the show, Gul stated, “Vaibhav Raj Gupta of ‘Gullak’ fame plays my brother in the show and there’s a constant dynamic of rivalry between the both of us. Samridhi Dewan plays Maya Ahuja, who is the 'Good Bad Girl', an unapologetically ambitious girl, who will not let anything or anyone come in her way. The show will be a genre redefining show and we will see parts written with women leads, but in a completely different perspective. Maya’s character too is neither black or white, but has shades of grey, and that’s closer to reality for all of us.”

It is rather interesting to note, that in the time and age when the majority of leading A-list actors of the 90s era are tanking at the box office, their female counterparts are ruling the OTT platforms. For instance, Madhuri Dixit was flawless in ’Fame Game’, so was Sonali Bendre in 'The Broken News'. Raveena Tandon too, managed to shine bright in ‘Aranyak’. S

Similarly, Gul, too, has won hearts with her roles in ‘The Family Man’ and ‘Pataal Lok’, both of which streamed on Amazon Prime Video. So, why are female actresses doing great on streaming platforms along with playing characters their age, which wasn’t the norm before? Gul credits it to the fact that OTT has empowered the audience and has made a move away from the economics of traditional filmmaking.

“As an actor, I am acting for the camera — unless I am acting for the stage, that is theatre — so it doesn’t make a difference to me. But with cinema and the economics of traditional filmmaking, actors are governed by it. Making a film and releasing it in theatres is an expensive task. Not to say that OTT is cheap because ‘The Family Man’ had one of the biggest budgets as compared to other OTT shows. So it is not about the budget, but the recovery of that budget,” she said.

According to her, when a film is released in theatres, the makers need people to come out of their homes and spend money, week after week, and also stick to a time schedule of shows.?

“Only a certain set of audience would go to the theatres to support their favourite stars. Therefore, economics actually decides the kind of cinema that is being made. In the case of OTT, you are consuming content from wherever you are. You are the deciding factor of what you want to watch. Since OTT has empowered the audience, the constant consumption has gone up, so more shows are being made and there’s more work for actors, including female leads, on OTT.”?

In fact, Gul asserted that in ‘Good Bad Girl’ too, the lead character Maya is a quintessential vibgyor in terms of character, despite being a strong woman. It’s a change from how strong women in cinema are usually shown as just white, with no shades of black.

Helmed by Abhishek Sengupta and produced by Vikas Bahl and Anurag Shrivastava, ‘Good Bad Girl’ also features Sheeba Chadha, Aradhya Anjana, Namrata Sheth, Rajendra Sethi, and Zain Khan amongst others.?

The show is streaming on SonyLIV from October 14, 2022.