Screenwriter, actor and producer Zeishan Quadri has only one thing to say to people who say his movies, like the Gangs of Wasseypur series, are too violent or full of unnecessary expletives. "Come to Wasseypur in Dhanbad, come to my hometown, and stay there. You will see that all of this [portrayed in the film] exists. The question to be asked then will be, 'will you come back to tell the tale?'", he says in a telephonic interview. Even as he works on the third edition of the crime thriller, he is basking in the reviews of Eros Now's just released film, Halahal, which he has co-written and produced. The movie is inspired by the 2013 Vyapam scam, which was about the alleged rigged nature of the examination, admission, and recruitment system for government jobs and educational institutions in Madhya Pradesh. It was said that the exam, taken by millions of students each year, involved a system where many of them were actually paid proxies for other undeserving students. Over a hundred people were arrested by the police, but none convicted, since most of them either suspiciously died in custody or were released on bail. "It was my genre. I like stories where the good people become bad, and the bad become good," says the actor-director, 37.

The movie has been praised for its unsentimental approach, and addressing the frustration people face with the system. It reveals the true nature of matters in India—where nothing really changes, regardless of what may happen.