Scam 1992 trailer: An intriguing portrayal of Harshad Mehta

In a time when monetary sums as large as Rs1,000 crore are casually bandied about in the news, the scale and scope of Harshad Mehta's scam might not seem as audacious. Yet, one generation ago, the man was widely seen as one of the most canny and ruthless businessmen of his time. For some, he was a hero, for many others, a fraud. The trailer of Hansal Mehta's upcoming series, Scam 1992 - The Harshad Mehta Story, which will stream on the SonyLIV OTT platform, captures this dichotomy.

The series, based on Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu's book The Scam, will feature Pratik Gandhi as the titular scamster, as well as Shreya Dhanwanthary, Ananth Mahadevan, Nikhil Dwivedi and Rajat Kapoor.

The trailer begins with a voiceover describing Mehta as everything from the Bachchan of the stock market to a fraud. Gandhi seems to play Mehta with a swagger, reminiscent of an Abhishek Bachchan in Guru. While the shady businessman realises the game he is playing is risky, the thrill of it and the prize at the end prove too much to resist. However, its the beginning of the end for Mehta when an industrious Dalal (Dhanwanthary) comes to learn of his shenanigans after receiving a tip-off.

The trailer has its fill of sharp cuts. The moment when Mehta says, "My fault is that I am Harshad Mehta'' seems to point to an anti-hero portrayal of the character. The production values of the series look impressive. Knowing the director's penchant for complex protagonists with Shahid (2013), Aligarh (2016) and Omerta (2018), Scam 1992 promises an interesting take on a deeply controversial figure. 

The series will premiere on SonyLIV on 9 October. Watch the trailer below and let us know if you are keen on watching the series.