At a time when his long-in-the-making Excel Entertainment project Bambai Meri Jaan continued to face setbacks during the lockdown, Bejoy Nambiar’s new project offered respite to actor Avinash Tiwary. “Kaala came my way at a crucial period in my career. Something that I had been working on was stuck, and I had been prepping for it in a different way. My character in Kaala may seem conventional, but it is a layered one. Behind the traditional cat-and-mouse chase, I am certain that people will see the depth of it,” he shares.

Nambiar’s offering explores a parallel economy that sees the conversion of black money to white money, and then to black money again through the process referred to as reverse hawala. It wasn’t a subject that Tiwary was cognisant of. “I was bemused to learn about the manner in which a case is cracked. It is thrilling. It was shocking to learn about the enormity of the scam. We have showcased not only the details of the scam but also the stories of the people involved in cracking the case.”