‘She is upbeat, positive, unreadable’: Nagesh Kukunoor on Madhuri Dixit’s killer in ‘Mrs Deshpande’

With Mrs Deshpande, Nagesh Kukunoor enters the serial killer genre for the first time in his three-decade-long career. The Hindi adaptation of the French miniseries La Mante stars Madhuri Dixit in a strikingly against-type role.

Mrs Deshpande will be out on JioHotstar on December 19. The cast includes Siddharth Chandekar and Priyanshu Chatterjee. Kukunoor spoke to Scroll about reshaping the original show to suit an Indian milieu, the process of building Mrs Deshpande with Dixit, and his reflections on a milestone year that includes The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case.

What drew you to La Mante? Which part of it felt closest to your own sensibilities?

I’m always looking to do something different. I don’t like to repeat myself. After The Hunt, I wanted to take on something new.

I’ve always wanted to do a serial killer story. I almost did one a few years ago, but it fell through. When Applause came to me with La Mante and I watched it, a bulb went off – the central conflict felt very Indian, something I could expand on. And the chance to create a female serial killer was too good to pass up.

In the French original, the story is told from the cop’s point of view. We have told the story from Mrs Deshpande’s perspective.

What creative decisions were taken while reworking the source material with co-writer Rohit Banawlikar?

I wanted a complete tonal shift. The French show has a heavy, brooding atmosphere – everything is dark, the cinematography leans into shadows, rooms are burnt out. I wanted realism, but I didn’t want that oppressive mood.

Mrs Deshpande is upbeat, positive, but unreadable. The Indian version plays as a thriller with drama and character, but without the weight of the world tone. I wanted it to be accessible, especially since Madhuri has a massive fan base. If I kept it extremely dark, I’d alienate a chunk of that audience.

Was Madhuri Dixit already cast when you joined the project?

No, Rohit Banawlikar and I arrived at the idea while writing episode one. When you’re writing something original, you imagine different people. But here, we had the French character played by Carole Bouquet, a beautiful, glamorous performer who was a Bond girl in the ’80s. That reference led us towards thinking: who is the Indian equivalent?

Once Madhuri Dixit came to mind, we wrote the rest of the show for her. If we could get her, it would be a coup – casting against type in the best possible way.

Was she easily convinced?

Well, Sameer Nair [Applause Entertainment head] and I made a straightforward pitch. She’s a huge fan of crime thrillers and serial killer shows, so we immediately connected over what we both enjoy. Both of us absolutely love Dexter. Mare of Easttown is another one, and Mindhunter.

I also sensed that she wanted to challenge herself and do something she hadn’t done before. She said yes, but it wasn’t firm until she read the scripts.

You’ve previously written strong, layered female characters. How did Mrs Deshpande challenge or expand your approach towards female protagonists?

Once the streaming space exploded, many more writers and creators began exploring layered female characters. Earlier, only a small group of us was doing it.

Now acceptance has gone up tremendously – in conversations, in casting, in audience expectation. With Madhuri, that acceptance opens even more doors. I didn’t feel the pressure to prove anything. I simply leaned into the character as we envisioned her.

How did you and Madhuri Dixit work toward balancing her star charisma with the grounded tone you wanted?

I call this initial period fencing, where the actor and director are trying to find their space. I always ease into it with the look test, when you start trying different clothes. Then we find common ground in the readings.

But over time, my approach has changed. I don’t beat the process to death before I go on set. I do a couple of readings. I hear the voice correctly. Then I kind of park it. The real tone is set on the actual set, not in an air-conditioned rehearsal room.

The first couple of days were rough because we were finding the sur, the note. Mrs Deshpande is someone who is almost always in control, so I wanted minimal physical movement. A lot is communicated through the way she looks at people. That was new for Madhuri, and it required back-and-forth in the early days.

It’s been a major year for you — The Hunt, your performance in Paatal Lok 2, Mrs Deshpande. What has 2025 taught you about your evolution as a storyteller and performer?

It’s easier to answer as a performer because it’s so infrequent and it always reinforces why I don’t do it more often, because it’s terrifying.

As a director, it’s been a very good year. I thought The Hunt would come out last year. Sometimes delays happen and that’s how two projects ended up in the same year.

What this year has done is create an urge to do a feature film. I’ve been pounding the streaming pavement, shooting 350 pages over the course of however many days, that now a 90-page feature film seems like a piece of cake.

What do you see ahead?

Almost immediately, I want to make a very indie film – stripped-down, small crew, back to my roots. I have an idea brewing, and if I can write it quickly, I hope to shoot it early next year. Beyond that, I’m getting back to meeting producers and pitching scripts.

I’m not done with features. Ideally, I’ll shoot something that hits theatres by mid-next year. The goal has always been to do at least one film or show in every genre. Horror and action are still left, and I hope to take them on soon.

Streaming platforms are cutting down on budgets and projects. Movies are back on the big screen. What is your take?

The OTT honeymoon period is over. Earlier, you could pitch the riskiest, craziest ideas and people were willing to explore them. I knew it wouldn’t last, but the phase was incredibly productive for me. City of Dreams, The Hunt, Mrs Deshpande – many of these would never be greenlit as theatrical films.

Now platforms are consolidating and the number of shows each year has dropped drastically. It’s a new reality.

But after 28 years, I’ve learned I’m a survivor. You roll with the punches, find the gaps, and squeeze something through. And if the big projects don’t align, I have the joy of writing something small and shooting it quickly with unknowns. That creative freedom hasn’t gone away.