Shriya Pilgaonkar and Varun Mitra reveal they visited High Courts and Trial Courts for their research for Guilty Minds

Actors Shriya Pilgaonkar and Varun Mitra, who will be soon seen in Amazon Prime Video’s first-ever legal drama, Guilty Minds, reveal that they visited real courts for their research for the show. While the duo accepts that the creator of the show Shefali Bhushan, who belongs to the family of lawyers, helped immensely in getting into the skin of the character, they visited real courts to understand the workings of the courts.

Shriya, who visited the High Court in Delhi, says, “I spoke to my lawyer friends and visited the high court a few times for research. It was important for me to understand their approach towards their profession. Clearly the courts are not always as dramatic as we have seen them represented on screen. While observing some lawyers, I realized that every lawyer brings their own persona and style while presenting themselves, and they are also performers in that sense. The challenge was to not play into the stereotype of a lawyer but to perform with authenticity and as realistic as possible without trying too hard. I didn’t want to be too cerebral about it. I completely trusted Shefali to guide me through the process. She said to me that I just have to trust that I am Kashaf and just go with the flow. I had so much fun.”

For Varun, however, the courtroom scenes were more animated than quiet. Varun reveals, “Varun reveals, “I went to the trial court in Mumbai with a lawyer friend before the shoot began. We entered many sessions that were ongoing and in one of the courtrooms my eyes fell upon a lawyer who I was told was known to be theatrical and animated and also loved by the judges. He walked into the courtroom with a swagger, and came alive while arguing his case . What I took from him was that he was “enjoying”himself while arguing the case. I think I was destined to see him that day. That day was the birth of Deepak Rana.”

Speaking on the research that went into the series, director Shefali Bhushan said, “A lot of research went into making this series because we wanted very accurate arguments and references to the sections of the IPC. So whatever topic we have chosen, we actually read up a lot of law around that topic. We consulted with lawyers. Two bonafide lawyers were in our writer's room as well, Manav, Bhushan who studied law but not practicing, and Deeksha Gujral who is a practicing lawyer. So yes, we went into a lot of research.”

Guilty Minds will premiere on Amazon Prime Video from 22nd April, 2022 in more than 240 countries and territories.