Actors Pratik Gandhi and Sunny Hinduja, who play RAW and ISI agents, respectively, in Netflix’s 70s set drama series ‘Saare Jahan Se Accha’, said the spies in their world are presented as conflicted humans full of dilemmas unlike their mainstream representation that’s full of swagger, action and fancy gadgets.

The series, directed by Sumit Purohit and written by Bhavesh Mandalia and Gaurav Shukla, begins with Indian scientist Homi Bhabha’s death in a plane crash in 1966 and charts the rise of two spy agencies in the aftermath of Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, a PTI report stated yesterday.

Gandhi, who broke out with ‘Scam 1992’ and has featured in critically-acclaimed films such as ‘Madgaon Express’, ‘Do Aur Do Pyaar’ and ‘Phule’, plays a resilient Indian spy, Vishnu, who is tasked with outsmarting Murtaza (Hinduja), his counterpart from across the border, to sabotage Pakistan’s nuclear programme. The show premieres on Netflix on August 13.

“We were very curious about what happened in history and about the 70s as a period. There were a lot of life changing events in our countries as well as in other countries,” Gandhi told PTI in an interview.

The actor said when the script came to him, he was pleasantly surprised that it was different from the spy dramas he had grown up on, where spies were shown as nothing less than superheroes. “They were all so full of swag and fancy gadgets,” Gandhi said.

Hinduja, known for his roles in ‘The Family Man’ and ‘Aspirants’, said like Gandhi, he was also happy that the portrayal was close to how spies would operate in real life.

“Their war is of intelligence, how to outsmart other people and how to bring your country first, that’s how they work. The kind of stakes that they have, we have never seen… like the many dilemmas they deal with and how there is always a lot going on but they have to put the country first and above everything,” the actor said.

What Gandhi liked about his character of Vishnu was that he is shown to be very restrained.

“He may get angry, but there are some decisions that he doesn’t want to take in haste. He also wants to find a way to save everyone, and it is fun to perform that layering. When he is standing in front of his wife, he wants to answer a lot of questions but he is not able to, because he can’t. You can show it only through your eyes and there is always a lot of fun in playing such characters,” the actor said.

Sunny said he watched a lot of videos from the 1970s to understand body language and life in general during that era. He also worked with a dialect coach to embody Murtaza, a sharp-witted ISI agent willing to pay any price for his country, even if it meant killing those closest to him.

“It was challenging to play the character as I am not from that country. I don’t know how people live, their habits and how they were in the 1970s… It was a challenging role both emotionally and physically. But the way the character is written is beautiful,” he said.

While Hinduja’s Murtaza is more out there, Gandhi’s Vishnu likes to operate on the margins and the actor said that was by design.

“What we want to convey is that Murtaza has crossed that moral line and is ready to do anything for his country and he is cold blooded in that. But Vishnu has not been able to cross that moral line 100 per cent… I think Vishnu has to become Murtaza to protect his country as passionately and with the same courage, but the good man inside Vishnu is stopping him,” Gandhi added.

Both the actors share the screen briefly that Gandhi said lasts for a few seconds but helps establish their dynamics.

‘Saare Jahan Se Accha’ is produced by Bombay Fables, and also features Suhail Nayyar, Kritika Kamra, Tillotama Shome, Rajat Kapoor and Anup Soni in pivotal roles.