KOCHI: Though web series has gained much popularity, especially during the lockdown days, there are very few women-centric ones. But ‘Pregly Things’, a series directed by Visakh Nandhu is an exception. Scripted to fit the horror-comedy genre, two episodes of the series have been released through YouTube and the viewers are already in awe of it.
The series narrates the story of five friends Teena, Ria, Janaki, Aiswarya, and Anu played by Anna Chacko, Angel Thomas, Adithi Chinnu, Mekha Jenin, and Jesni Anna Joy, living together in an apartment. Their flat is believed to the haunted, and their house owner has a missing son who is assumed to be dead. The friends decide to get stoned one day and their troubles start there. “Teena claims to have encountered the spirit of this guy, scaring the rest. To get some clarity, they call up Sabu, who is known to have the ability to speak to spirits. He joins the team, and the rest is history,” says Visakh.
Visakh planned this series with four male leads a year ago. “I wanted to accommodate some other concepts too. So I thought why not bring in Sabu to an apartment where only women reside. This will intrigue the audience more. Also, there aren’t many series in Malayalam which are women-centric. So I rewrote the script and presented it to the producer Saljith N M, and he was quite excited about it too,” adds Visakh. Sreejith Babu and Sreenath Babu play the other important characters. Renjith Surendran handled cinematography and editing, and music is by Godwin Geo Sabu.
Visakh is happy with the response after two episodes. “I wanted the episodes to be short, but intriguing. It is nice to see the viewers are curious and waiting for the next part,” Visakh asserts. He also talks about negative feedback from the viewers. “People have their perceptions and some may not tolerate the sight of girls getting stoned. I firmly believe that girls have the same freedom that guys have, and they have all the rights to enjoy it.” Adithi and Anna were already on Visakh’s mind while the cast was being decided. The other characters were selected through an audition. He plans to do around 15 episodes for the first season of the series. “The main challenge was to get an apartment for the shoot. Finally, we got one and the shooting started. Also, we are shooting with minimum cast and crew, taking all safety precautions,” he adds.