"How does one depict a woman’s rage when there are no restrictions? That was our first thought,” says producer Shailja Kejriwal of Zindagi’s Qatil Haseenaon Ke Naam that has just won The Asian Academy Creative Award in Singapore for Best Anthology. “It’s about the suppressed rage of women—Meenu [Gaur, creator and director] and I were discussing subjects, and we realised there are so many dos and don’ts for women. We wanted to tell a story about what happens when that rage is allowed to come out.” No wonder they chose the genre noir, which often shows women as sensual, man-eater-type characters. “Exactly,” says Kejriwal. “We wanted to tell noir from the female gaze. So these women celebrate their beauty for sure, but for themselves, not for men. Guru Dutt, Meena Kumari and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam were our biggest influences.”

Qatil is about several disgruntled and wronged women who punish men for deceit, opportunism and violence. Set in Pakistan, it stars Pakistani actors Sanam Saeed, Sarwat Gilani, with Kejriwal as producer, and Gaur, who is a British Indian married to a Pakistani. “When I was younger, I had a penpal from Pakistan,” says Kejriwal. “In the ’90s, I was hooked to Dhoop Kinare and other TV shows from Pakistan. In 1998, when I was with Star, we even made Tanha starring Marina Khan, whom we all loved in Dhoop.” She feels that such collaborations are necessary to widen the content pool in terms of actors, stories and perspectives. “We also get another market—23 crore Pakistanis.”