They are the poster boys of Indian OTT in 2023, with Farzi and Guns & Gulaabs as the two standout shows of the year. Some of the biggest stars – Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Shahid Kapoor and Varun Dhawan – have signed with them for their OTT debuts. But more than plain success, what drives filmmaker duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK is the thirst to tell new stories.

“After Shor In The City, people thought we would make a Salaam Bombay! kind of film. But we made Go Goa Gone, a zombie movie!” says Raj. But then, these two have been breaking the mould regularly – right from the time they chucked their engineering careers in the US to come back to India and make films. Excerpts from the chat:

Raj Nidimoru: When we started off in Mumbai, everything was hero-driven, and all of it was about hero worship. So, we thought we should bring the guy (the hero) down to earth, hence we made 99, Shor In The City and Go Goa Gone, where the protagonist is a nobody, and his value system isn’t black or white.

Krishna DK: While our characters are fictitious, they are inspired by real life, where no one is one hundred per cent good or bad. Even the antagonist has a story, about why they are bad. We usually try to give the bad guy one redeeming quality. Mansoor (Kay Kay Menon) in Farzi is the antagonist, but you also feel the pressure he is under and why he is doing what he is doing.

Raj: Even Atmaram (Gulshan Devaiah) in Guns & Gulaabs was abused.

DK: It’s not really pressure, since they already knew what they were getting into. OTT is an actor’s – and not a star’s – medium.

Raj: It’s a learning experience for them too, and they come with so much of energy and excitement.

DK: That’s the conversation we have with actors. ‘You have done so many films, but you will have to be the character for longer and put in that much extra effort’. These are actors who have been working for years, but now we are the experienced ones when it comes to OTT.

Raj: We were doing very well as engineers, but the cookie-cutter life and the monotony of a nine-to-five job drove me out.

DK: For my family, my life’s biggest achievement was that I went to the US as an engineer. But then we decided to cancel all of it and come back home. My mom thought it was a hobby. After we made one independent film, my family thought I would return to the engineering job. It’s when we decided to make a film in Hindi that they realized that we were serious about it.

Raj: Both of us grew up in small towns of Andhra Pradesh. We would watch every movie running in the theatres – good or bad. We’d watch Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and dubbed Malayalam films. Regional films were always a major influence, but it was in the US that we discovered American indie films and global cinema.

DK: We were especially fascinated with filmmakers’ first breakthrough movies – Russo brothers’ Welcome To Collinwood or Christopher Nolan’s Memento and Following. If you want to learn about a filmmaker’s true personality, you must watch their work in the formative years, when they don’t have the world at their command.

Raj: For our film Flavors (2003), almost everyone was from IT or similar fields. Even the DOP (director of photography) was a steady cam operator! We would hold the mics ourselves and the shoot was entirely in sync sound. We would borrow shopping carts from Walmart and use it as a trolley. Then, one of the actors had finished shooting his part and had flown off and was not accessible. But we needed to do a reshoot, so I had to wear his clothes and we had to do it in a way that my face wouldn’t show. We even learnt editing on the job. By the time we made 99 (2009) and Shor in the City (2011), we were very hands-on. And this training took away all your fears.

Raj: We had zero connections in the industry and no idea about permissions required to shoot. But we shot a short film (Shor, which is the genesis of Shor In The City) with some FTII students. That was a film that a lot of people ended up watching.

DK: Aamir Khan saw that film and he hired the DOP for Dhobi Ghat! As for Saif, he is the first person to admit he’s crazy when it comes to creative stuff. When we narrated the concept of Go Goa Gone, he couldn’t believe we were making a zombie comedy.

Raj: After The Family Man’s success, people were expecting another series in the same vein, which is also why we wanted to do something different with Farzi.

Raj: People say Farzi and Guns & Gulaabs should have been films. Our take is that regardless of the medium, our work must entertain and offer a fresh take on the genre. We plan to put our learnings from OTT into a film next year. Not having to worry about the box office in the OTT space does make a difference. There’s no studio pressure to have a song-and-dance break.

DK: There is still pressure to perform, just that it comes in a different form. There are no immediate numbers to show how much money your series made, but from the discussions on social media, you understand if people are liking it. Writing eight episodes for OTT is difficult, but it allows you to go deeper than a film. You must look at the two formats differently, just like in cricket, where you play T20 and one-day matches differently, though both require talent and a knack for the game.

Raj: There was nothing inflammatory, just the fact that the subject made some people assume it was negative. Now everybody has a voice on social media, and when you have so many voices, somebody is going to be affected by something.

DK: A lot of times the controversial voices will be enhanced, that’s just the nature of things. When the trailer of The Family Man released, some people assumed that Sri Lankan Tamilians were being portrayed badly. We immediately put out a statement. As filmmakers, one has to be responsible. We don’t set out to offend or shock anybody.

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OTT’s like we’re putting the actors on stage, in front of a live audience, something they haven’t done before. So, it’s a learning experience for them too

– Raj Nidimoru

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OTT is an actor’s – and not a star’s – medium. You cannot charm the audience for eight episodes. You need to be a nuanced, talented actor

– Krishna DK

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When we narrated the concept of Go Goa Gone to Saif, he couldn’t believe we were making a zombie comedy. In an hour, he had almost finished reading (the script) and was laughing away, saying, ‘Mujhe yeh karna hai’

– Krishna DK

Raj and DK: Go Goa Gone and Stree

Raj and DK: Kaala Paani

Raj: Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone – all really strong actors

DK: Aamir Khan and Mr Bachchan have always been on our list too