The Trial 2 actor Sheeba Chadha opens up about female rivalry on set while questioning OTT’s growing obsession with templates. She also spoke about how the second season of the show brought several reunions for her.
Sheeba Chadha
The Trial’s second season has brought several reunions for Sheeba Chadha, including with former collaborator Umesh Bist, who took over the directing duties for this instalment of the JioHotstar show. The two had previously worked together on the Sanya Malhotra-starrer Pagglait (2021), a world drastically different from that of the legal drama. But what remained constant, Chadha says, was Bist’s sensitive approach.
“I had a very good working experience with him in Pagglait. What is amazing is that the zone of The Trial is diametrically opposite from that of Pagglait. But he brings sensitivity and gentleness to the show. I think there’s enough fire and spice in the script. But the landing of it with a gentle hand, an eye that sees a little bit more than what’s on the page, and then to encourage the actors to look at it and to bring that into play, that’s what Umesh always brings to anything he does. It’s his eye for emotional detail. He will always make the script flower more,” the actor shares.
(L-R) Sheeba Chadha and Alyy Khan in ‘The Trial 2’
Chadha also enjoyed returning to the set alongside the show’s other talented women, including Kajol and Kubbra Sait. While the sexist notion that women don’t get along is often attached to projects featuring several female actors, Chadha believes this idea is outdated. “That’s a very old school [of thought] that if there are two or three women together [it’s difficult]. Nobody wants to indulge that. Of course, this kind of feeling [of insecurity] any actor can have towards any actor. But it’s outdated to pander to that narrative. Sisterhood is just wonderful, there’s no doubt about it. You just have to allow it. It’s really solid and brings you so much.”
The Trial will mark her fifth release in 2025 alone — three shows and two films, both on OTT and the big screen. The streaming space has given her rich opportunities to showcase her versatility, through projects like Bandish Bandits, Mirzapur, and Taj Mahal 1989. But there are murmurs in the industry that stories on OTT are beginning to follow a template, with unconventional ideas struggling to take off. Chadha admits she has been hearing about “recession in the industry”.
“Right now, I’m hearing this, ‘Oh! the industry is going through a recession.’ And, ‘People want to see everyday stories, relatable stories.’ So what seems to be working right now are the smaller town stories. Now that’s a template, right? Panchayat [Prime Video series] is a template. Gullak [SonyLIV series] is a template. I’ve just done a show called Bakaiti, which probably falls in the same template. Can there be more expansive content? I think that goes without saying, always, because the minute something does well, it will become a template. It takes a lot to break that [mould] and come up with stuff that is not driven by commerce. Having said that, I am hugely grateful for the vast canvas of stuff that I’ve gotten to perform on OTT — Bandish Bandits is very different from The Trial, which in turn is very different from other stuff that I have done.”
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
