ALL HAIL THE SHOWRUNNERS

Who is this new breed of multitaskers helming your favourite OTT series? We find out

- Jigar Shah

Since the streaming services began producing content, it brought the unique credit of 'showrunner'. A showrunner is, as the name suggests, the one who runs the show. This person is usually responsible for the entire series, and is the one taking the creative as well as the management decisions. The showrunner ensures that the script is locked, the budget is being adhered to, the members of the cast are taken care of, etc., but most importantly, they make sure that the creative vision of the show is protected. Often, writers double up as showrunners.

We rounded up a few of the best in the business to talk about their journeys on their respective shows:

GURMMEET SINGH DIRECTOR AND SHOWRUNNER OF MIRZAPUR - SEASON 3

Gurmmeet Singh, who has worked on films like Don, Gandhi, My Father, Jodhaa Akbar, and Fukrey Returns, stepped into this world with Mirzapur after working on Amazon Prime Video and Excel Entertainment's first web show, Inside Edge. But his Mirzapur journey had started as a director. He has taken up the mantle of the showrunner for the upcoming season.

"Puneet Krishna was the showrunner for the first two seasons. In the third season, I took over the role of the showrunner since I've been part of the team as a director since its inception," says Singh.

According to him, the scope and responsibility of a showrunner depends on where the show currently is. "My biggest responsibility is to ensure that the new content is in harmony with the previous seasons, from how the characters talk and behave to their journey ahead, it is my job to ensure continuity and find similarities within the world we've built. If this is not done judiciously, the audience would not get invested in the twists and turns we will pull during the season."