'Adolescence' creator Stephen Graham surprised by acclaim from Indian audiences

Stephen Graham, the creator of Adolescence, who also stars in the show has expressed his amazement at the overwhelming response to the Netflix series from various countries, especially India. He noted that they never expected the British crime drama to have such a significant impact. "Adolescence," which debuted on March 13, has received positive reviews from Indian audiences, including notable filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Hansal Mehta, Sudhir Mishra, Shekhar Kapur, and Alia Bhatt.

What is Stephen Graham's Adolescence about?

Adolescence is a four-part series which was filmed in a single take, follows the story of 13-year-old schoolboy Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper), who gets arrested for the murder of a classmate. Graham, who plays Jamie's father and also contributes to the show’s writing, admitted he was taken aback by the show's popularity with viewers from India.

“I got a text from a mate of mine, telling me how big 'Adolescence' is in India. And my first response was, ‘Hold on… did you say India?! Did I hear you correctly?’ Apparently, it’s really striking a nerve there," he shared in a recent interview.

"But it just seems to have struck a nerve in a lot of places! The thing you have to understand, when we set out to do this… it was very colloquial. But it’s like we dropped a stone into this pond, and the ripple effect it’s produced has been unbelievable,” he added.

Directed by Philip Barantini, Adolescence also stars Ashley Walters, Christine Tremarco, Erin Doherty and Faye Marsay and reached 24.3 million views in just the first four days. Graham shared that the aim with the series was to make "one of those social dramas for right now".

"We have a real crisis going on with young men today, and we’ve got to start talking about it right now. It affects all of us. I just wanted to start a conversation about this, a real conversation. I didn’t know if people would be ready to talk about it. But I think they are. And hopefully, this is just the beginning of the conversation,” said Graham.