Hotstar Specials in conjunction with RMF (Ram Madhvani Films) recently released the series Aarya – a story where organised crime is the daily family business and betrayal runs deep. The show features Sushmita Sen, Chandrachur Singh, and an ensemble cast of Namit Das, Sikandar Kher, Jayant Kripalani, Sohaila Kapoor, Sugandha Garg, Maya Sareen, Vishwajeet Pradhan, and Manish Chaudhary in pivotal roles. Directed by Ram Madhvani, Sandeep Modi and Vinod Rawat, Aarya is an official adaptation of popular Dutch crime-drama Penoza.

Recently, Ram Madhvani revealed that he wanted to recreate the internationally-acclaimed Penoza for Indian audiences for over 9 years, but was baffled by how best to churn this out, keeping their content-appetite in mind. Like every other artist, he chanced upon his eureka moment for Aarya in the most unconventional way.

Speaking about this incident that sparked the thought to create Aarya, he says, “I saw Penoza nine years ago with my wife, Amita, now my co-producer. When we saw it, we immediately knew that this is the character that we really had to bring onto the screen for the Indian audience. For a couple of years, I was clueless on how to adapt it. Around seven years ago, we were undertaking a train journey and I happened to ask the TC the whereabouts of some flowers blooming outside. Upon being informed of them being opium fields, it occurred to me how to root this. I knew how to make it culturally relevant to India.”