Women's power drives Karan Johar's 'Guilty'

MUMBAI: Filmmaker-producer Karan Johar, whose digital content production wing Dharmatic has collaborated with streaming giant Netflix for a venture named "Guilty", has said that his upcoming edge-of-the-seat thriller film has intrigue, resonance and relevance, combined by some terrific performances.

"Guilty" is led by women in all departments -- be it in acting, direction, writing and production -- and Johar declares he will continue collaborating with female talent in future, too.

At the trailer launch, Johar was accompanied by the film's director Ruchi Narain, writers Kanika Dhillion and Atika Chohan, and cast members Kiara Advani, Gurfateh Singh Pirzada, Akansha Ranjan Kapoor and Taher Shabbir. Srishti Behl Arya, director, International Original Film, India, Netflix, was also present, as were Apoorva Mehta, CEO, Dharma Productions, and Somen Mishra, head of creative development at Dharma Movies.

On the female-centric cast and crew, Johar said: "It's quite interesting that it is such a strong female-led narrative, led by a mainstream female actor, directed by a woman, creatively nurtured by a strong woman and all of us at Dharma are such strong feminists including Somen (Mishra), Apoorva (Mehta) and me that we feel proud to tell this story and want to continue telling stories led by women, created by women and nurtured by women."

In "Guilty", Kiara essays a musician's girlfriend. The story explores the different versions of truth that emerge when a smalltown girl accuses her college heartthrob of rape.

"We are really excited to tell the story of 'Guilty'. It has intrigue, resonance, relevance and more than that, 'Guilty' has a strong narrative and storytelling along with terrific performances. We are excited to actually have a film that is led by a solid mainstream star but also bring new talent to the table along with a very strong filmmaker," declared Johar.

After her grand web debut with Karan Johar's segment in the anthology "Lust Stories" (2018), Kiara returns to the digital space with "Guilty".

Talking about his collaboration with Netflix, Johar said: "This is the first time that Dharmatic and Netflix has come together. All of you know that Netflix is a tremendous global platform and they really encourage and nurture strong content, so to collaborate with them was really an honour and also a privilege to be able to tell stories we really want to with the abundance and the craft and creativity."

"Guilty" will stream on Netflix from March 6.