The new season of Jaideep Ahlawat starrer Paatal Lok drops on Amazon Prime Video today. The first part of the crime web series released in 2020 and ever since, the audience has been waiting for the next season, and it is finally here. We sat down with the creator of Paatal Lok season 1 and 2, Sudip Sharma, to know what we can expect this time around and the story behind the name Hathi Ram Chaudhary, a very interesting character played by Jaideep Ahlawat.

Talking about the name Hathi Ram, Sudip shares, “Jaideep and I have discussed this multiple times. There is this hathi like quality in the character. What I mean is that an elephant is a force of nature, there is a certain power to it. But he is unaware of his own force. Until and unless he loses it, woh tab hota hai jab hathi paagal hota hai. Otherwise it is a very gentle creature. Ghoomta rehta hai, khata rehta hai. Jab woh paagal hota hai that’s when it realises its power, woh kis hadd tak jaa sakta hai. Jaideep’s character also has that gentle giant, not to be messed with quality. Plus, it is very lovely on the ear.”

Talking about the difference in Jaideep Ahlawat’s character of Hathi Ram, from Paatal Lok season 1 to 2, Sudip reveals, “In the first season, Hathi Ram has this anxiety. Bohot bechain tha woh. He needed to prove himself – to his son, his dead father, his colleagues – that he is not a failure in life. Woh anxiety, woh urge was pushing him towards gaining that success. At the end of the first season, he realises the fact that he wasn’t trying to prove anything to anyone else but to himself. He solves the Sanjeev Mehra case, but he doesn’t get any medals or promotions, no one knows he has cracked it.”

Talking about what has changed in the second season in Hathi Ram’s attitude, persona and professional life. “What is the same is that he is still doing the same job, sitting in the same chair. Ghar ke haalaat bhi same he hain. But there is a certain acceptance in him. Duniya abhi bhi waisi hai… but he is more at peace with his place in this world.”

Sharing deeper insights on Paatal Lok season 2, Sudip says, “There is a new realization. There is a line in the trailer that says, ‘Ya toh naukri karlo ya duty’. This is the realization Jaideep’s character has. The main change is in his guiding motivation. In the first season it was, ‘Saari zindagi baap ki aankhon mein dekha hai ki main failure hoon, ab bete ki aankhon mein yeh nahin dekhna chahta’. Iss baar the guiding motivation is, ‘main naukri nahi kar raha hoon, duty kar raha hoon’.”

All in all, Sudip explains, “Aadmi wohi hai, uski idiosyncrasies bhi wohi hai, doggedness, perseverance are all the same. But there is no anxiety, there is something calm about him in season 2.”

Paatal Lok season 2 starts streaming on Amazon Prime Video from January 17 onwards. It brings back Jaideep Ahlawat as Hathi Ram Chaudhary and his close ally, Ishwak Singh as Imran Ansari. The new season also adds Tillotama Shome in an important role alongside the original cast of Gul Panag, Jahnu Barua, Anurag Arora amongst others.

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