While Vikram might have grown comfortable with the writing structure of a feature film, long-form storytelling is a beast of its own. Writing an 8-episode series is not the same as writing a lot of material and splitting it into different chunks. Every episode needs its own start, buildup and of course, a cliffhanger to ensure the viewer keeps watching. With Dhootha being his first tryst with a limited series, how did he crack the writing process? Vikram has a very simple answer. “Honestly, I had this idea in my mind for a while now and my biggest fear was whether we could elaborate it into 8 episodes. It could have gone either as a feature or as a series when I discussed it with Naga Chaitanya but by the time Amazon Prime Video came in touch with us, I was thinking about a show. So I picked this idea but I was afraid this might stretch for eight episodes. But this story just wrote itself. It happens with some stories, I strongly believe it. And the speed at which I wrote Dhootha was shocking to me since I’m a lazy writer.”
How long did he take to write the show? “The first draft was finished in six days. Eight episodes in six days. There’s some great vaasthu in that room, let me tell you. It did some wonder. I keep telling everyone about that room,” Vikram laughs.