Randeep Hooda gets back in uniform as his pulpy crime-thriller series, Inspector Avinash,is coming up with season 2. The actor has played a cop multiple times before— whether it is in a period-drama flair in Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai (2010), a relentless edginess in Jannat 2 (2011) or while chasing a superstar in Kick (2014). So, he wasn’t too keen when filmmaker Neeraj Pathak approached him to headline Inspector Avinash. “I told him that I don’t want to hear a cop script, as I was getting too many of those. But then he told me the story, I was quite bowled over,” says Randeep, as he opens up on his choices. “Between what you choose and what chooses you, lies your career. I just try to select whatever it is that fascinates me in that particular moment.”

It is somewhat easy for the actor to determine if he would work on a project or not. “During the script narration, I should be able to listen to it with interest and imagine the world. The story should also have a shade of something that I have not done before,” he says, adding that he has been considering other aspects beyond these lately. “It is important to know who is producing it, how it is going to be exhibited and where, because a lot of hard work can go unnoticed if it's not for the right platform,” says Randeep.

Inspired by the real-life story of Uttar Pradesh’s super-cop, Avinash Mishra, Inspector Avinash is set in the 1990s, where he battles sinister gang lords of weapon cartels along with his newly formed Special Task Force (STF). Despite exploring gritty themes and featuring some violent action sequences, the show’s overall tone is balanced with the humorous appeal of Avinash. On various occasions, he breaks the fourth wall and addresses the camera, sharing his thoughts directly to the audience — something the other characters cannot hear. Neeraj explains that he inculcated the technique in order to build a parallel narrative alongside the cases which Avinash solves.

“I didn’t want to use voice-overs where he is heard telling his story over other visuals. Instead, I thought of some punchy one-liners that he can deliver directly to the camera to grab everyone’s attention. It was written carefully to have that effect. Many people told me that they would wait for these one-to-one addresses,” says Neeraj. However, Randeep wasn’t too convinced with it in the beginning.

“I had only seen it in House of Cards. I wasn’t too sure how it would pan out here. But when I faced the camera for the first time and delivered my lines, I enjoyed doing it and felt that it was possible. It’s good that I wasn’t able to influence Neeraj,” Randeep smiles.

Another aspect of the show where Randeep wasn’t convinced was the treatment of the action scenes. The actor has worked before in the Hollywood actioner, Extraction (2020), headlined by Chris Hemsworth, and will be seen next in the John Cena-starrer action-comedy, Matchbox: The Movie. Based on his experience, he finds a stark difference between the working styles in Hollywood and Bollywood.

“In Hollywood, the preparation, rehearsals and safety are more advanced. Whereas in most movies in India, we go on set and make it all up as we go along, and there are a lot of cuts. So, for Inspector Avinash, I told the action director, ‘This is a realistic show. Why are you bringing this South Indian masala action into it?’ But again, I am glad they didn’t listen to me,” explains Randeep.

Through the dramatic action and dialogue, Neeraj instils an entertaining factor to the series, which feels slightly different from a host of other crime-thrillers set in the heartland. Known for writing films like Apne (2007), Gumnaam: The Mystery (2008) and Bhaiyyaji Superhit (2018), Inspector Avinash marks the OTT debut of Neeraj.

“When I was writing the show, most of the crime dramas coming on OTT were realistic slow burners and had an entirely different grammar. But I wanted to bring in the aesthetics of commercial cinema on OTT. It is a huge challenge to reach the last level of audience and I always want to do that,” says the filmmaker.

Randeep finds that a unique aspect of Inspector Avinash. “I find a lot of crime dramas on OTT quite boring. I cannot sit through them anymore. So, I am also glad that Neeraj has kept the episode lengths short. It is difficult to watch one-hour episodes which are made with an artistic, unpalatable treatment. Nobody wants a psychology lesson late at night,” says the actor.

What the actor also finds boring is putting himself in an image, whether that of a macho man exhibiting a certain physicality or of building a public persona. His character in Inspector Avinash asks right at the beginning, “Am I a hero or a villain?” The question resonates even in the context of Randeep’s filmography, where he has played both these parts and also dabbled in roles that don’t necessarily fit into that traditional criteria. In his last film, Jaat, Randeep played a dreaded antagonist and he finds villainous characters “generally more interesting.”

“But cinema today is also heading away from black-and-white and exploring both the good and bad in a person. So, I don’t like putting myself in any boundaries. But people also start expecting the same things from you. If you do something different, you are screwed; if you keep doing the same, you are screwed. That is a difficult space to be in, and I was never comfortable with that. That’s why I have purposely tried to change my choices,” concludes Randeep.

Inspector Avinash season 2 will be releasing on JioHotstar on May 15