She is still most remembered for her show Hip Hip Hurray — the television series that follows the lives of 12th graders at a high school, a show that brought to the small screen the adventures, fears, relationships and hopes of teenagers. Though Nupur Asthana has been behind the camera for several other shows and films, Hip Hip Hurray remains iconic.
The director has now made another mark in the entertainment industry with Romil and Jugal. The web series on ALT Balaji has been in the news for being a first of its kind gay love story. “It was written as a film script, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. But what made it exciting is the fact that there were two boys in it. This story resonated with me because I have friends who are gay and I have heard their stories,” says Nupur.
It has been a tricky project for Nupur, considering that she was making this show for a society that takes offence to creative depiction of the misunderstood community. “Telling the story through a mainstream entertainment medium was a challenge because I had to understand the psyche of these characters. One of them is in denial of his sexuality, the other has accepted it but nobody knows it except for his best friend. It was like walking a fine line. Neither did I want to trivialise the issue nor did I want to make it appear pretentious, and I didn’t want the LGBT audience to wonder ‘yeh kya kiya hai’ (what has she done),” offers Nupur.
But since the show has been on air, she’s only been receiving positive reviews. “The feedback I have received from the community is tremendous. They say how much it means to them,” she says excitedly. Perhaps the treatment of the subject like any other love story seems to have struck a chord.
“This scene just brought a sense of acceptance of their (LGBT) love. I hadn’t thought of it seriously when I was working on the show but it seems to have worked. I just wanted the show to be unabashedly mainstream and accessible to all,” she signs off.