Netflix's new crime thriller Kohrra is the talk of the town and for good reason. The compelling web series is earning rave reviews from most quarters. Another reason viewers are flocking to watch the series is to catch a glimpse of actress Rachel Shelley, who is best known for her role as Elizabeth Russell in the 2001 film Lagaan. In the film, she played the role of Captain Russell's sister, a kind-hearted woman in love with Aamir Khan's Bhuvan. Now, 22 years later, Rachel Shelley has returned to an Indian production with the Netflix original, this time in the role of a mother desperately looking for her missing son.
While Rachel Shelley's latest role may have re-introduced her to a larger Indian audience, the actress has been occupied with several international projects for the last two decades. The actress, born in England, has made notable appearances in a variety of popular television shows and films throughout her career, in addition to her Oscar-nominated role in Lagaan. Recognised and appreciated widely for her work in Photographing Fairies and the acclaimed series The L Word, she has also been a part of popular productions like Once Upon A Time and Grantchester in the past decade.
In addition to acting, Rachel Shelley is also a writer, contributing columns to The Guardian and DIVA Magazine. One of her columns in The Guardian also had referring to her experience of working on Lagaan, describing it as a period of "four months of disease, tears, and passion in the desert of western India."
About Rachel Shelley's return to an Indian production after 22 years with Kohrra, the show's director Sudip Sharma told the “The casting of Rachel [Shelley] came from a bit of practicality. I knew I wanted an actor from the UK for the part and didn't want to hire a ‘white actor working in Mumbai' just because it makes things easy,” adding that her experience of working in Lagaan made it easy for her to traverse the trappings of an Indian production.
“Shooting a web series is tough, we don't have the kind of budgets that are there for films and a professional white actor, who has done good work over there, they would find it very tough to shoot here, the chaos that's here. So, part of the reason to hire her was because she had done Lagaan, she knew what madness could be like,” Sudip Sharma said, adding, “Apart from that, she is also a great actor and I had seen a bunch of her other work in the West…”
Meanwhile, Rachel Shelley has also been promoting the series on her official Twitter account. For instance, sharing a video of the show, she wrote, “Kohrra has a lot of meanings, and I just want to clear it up…Watch this video and understand the intense murder mystery. Kohrra arrives on 15th July only on Netflix.”
Kohraa is headlined by Barun Sobti and Suvinder Vicky along with Harleen Sethi, Ekavali Khanna, and Varun Badola. The show has been directed by Randeep Jha.