'Lust Stories' was a game changer for me: Kiara Advani

Kiara Advani returns to Netflix with "Guilty", her second outing with the streamer after "Lust Stories", and the actor says filmmaker Karan Johar thought she would be apprehensive about coming on board for another project on the OTT platform. Kiara made her debut in 2014 with "Fugly", but found acclaim with Johar's directorial segment in the 2018's anthology.

"I was in the car with Karan when he told me he has heard a narration and it's a very strong role. He said it's the most thrilling script he had heard. He wanted me to hear it and told me it was on Netflix. 

"But he thought I may have apprehension in my mind because I had signed films like 'Kabir Singh' and 'Good Newwz' but in my head, the platform doesn't matter. What matters is the content," Kiara told reporters here.

Having seen the reach of web, the actor said she had no qualms about returning to the medium. "As an actor you want to reach out as many people as possible. Fortunately, the script that came to me was 'Guilty'. 'Lust Stories' was a game changer for me. So there was never a second thought about doing 'Guilty'. It seemed like a perfect opportunity."

Directed by Ruchi Narain, "Guilty" explores the different versions of truth that emerge when a small-town girl accuses the college heartthrob of rape. Kiara said the story of the film is layered and hence it cannot be classified as a thriller. "Yesterday I called Karan and asked him, 'What do I say (about the trailer)' and he said something that I wrote down because it aptly describes the film.

"Basically, consent is a victim of perception. And it's true because what may be consensual to you might not be consensual to someone else. How each one of us looks at it." Ruchi, known for writing screenplays of films such as "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi" and "Calcutta Mail", said while sexual assault has always been a relevant issue, there is a lot more conversation and awareness around it today.

"There is a lot of talk and awareness about it these days, about any kind of assault and who do you believe. What interested me the most in telling this story was that when you read an article, there are opinions and a lot of things are academic. But life is about human beings and everybody is coming from a (certain) place, they have their own agenda. 

"So when an issue like this happens, there are different reasons to believe and not believe. So how do you really know? That's the question which bothers and plagues all of us. Everyone has a point of view and it is, in some way, relevant. It is a story about human complexities," Ruchi added. Written by Kanika Dhillon and Atika Chohan, "Guilty" will stream from March 6.