ARTICLE
Hoping to break boundaries with HOOQ’s 1st Singapore original series
By Flora / 04 Feb 2020 (Tuesday)
Image Credit: HOOQ
Created and produced by the brains of comedy brand Ministry of Funny, Terence Chia and Haresh Tilani, “She’s a Terrorist and I Love Her” is the first Singapore original television series on HOOQ, a video-on-demand service platform.
This Singaporean comedy stars Tilani alongside local breakout talents such as Munah Bagharib, Noah Yap and Caitanya Tan and Benjamin Kheng, tells a story of a desperate man who enters a fake marriage for a quick payout. To his horror, he finds out that his beautiful new ‘wife’ is actually an extremist whose ultimate goal is to blow herself up in a catastrophic terror attack on Singapore. With true love as his only weapon, it’s a battle against time to win over his wife’s heart and stop the terror attack to save his beloved country.
Apart from comedy and drama, the series also packs elements of action and everything in-between. “This is my first ever action series,” shared Bagharib at the launch party. “When they spoke to me about it, I was happy! There was a lot of training involved and although it can be difficult, it was really fun.”
When asked about challenges, Yap said it was “Haresh’s and Terence’s impromptu demands”. “There were a lot of moments where (the descriptions) were not on the script and we just discussed it on the spot. One example was in the first or second episode where it stated my character came out in a towel but didn’t state how. On that day of the shoot, I didn’t think I would be wrapped… just watch it!”
Image Credit: HOOQ
The series is the winner of the second annual HOOQ Filmmakers Guild; the first series from Singapore, and was also nominated at the Asian Academy Creative Awards 2019 for “Best Original Programme By A Streamer/OTT.”
“We try and put everything you cannot put on the show, on the show,” shared Tilani. “There’s sex, love, violence, BDSM, making fun of people we shouldn’t be making fun of, on the show. It was comforting to know that we are able to do it and HOOQ didn’t tell us that we can’t put this in or we can’t say this. They really allowed us to put our vision through.”
“The idea of a show had been brewing for a while now. So a kernel of this idea was pitched a year-and-a-half ago. I think It got turned down because of its scale and how it was too big of a story. We thought it was a good idea and kept it in our pockets and see what happens. Then this HOOQ thing came along and I think it met their objectives in terms of pushing the boundaries and doing something different from Singapore, as well meeting our objectives of creating a show of this scale,” explained Chia.
The show not only tries to push the boundaries in terms of its M18 content, the creators also hope to flip stereotypes through this series. “When you talk about a terrorist, you would think typically it’s someone who is a man and often have violent tendencies, but what if the terrorist is not even a guy, she’s a woman who is physically very capable and manipulates people.”
Image Credit: HOOQ
She’s a Terrorist and I Love Her is now streaming on HOOQ.