Extraction actor Priyanshu Painyuli preps for his next with Taapsee Pannu and virtual play
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; May 20, 2020)

As the antagonist in the month-old Netflix release, Extraction, Priyanshu Painyuli successfully broke the mould of being a boy-next-door. The actor, who is best known for his role in Vikramaditya Motwane's Bhavesh Joshi Superhero, played the Bangladeshi don Amir Ali, Chris Hemsworth's nemesis. Backed by the Russo Brothers, the film opened to a rapturous round of applause from the audience, who have inevitably shifted to OTT platforms for their Friday fix of entertainment.

The actor tells mid-day, "It's a paisa vasool film and picks you up if you are feeling low. When I auditioned [for it], I didn't know it was a Russo Brothers' film. It's not every day that you appear in a pivotal role in a film made by the people who made Avengers. Chris Hemsworth and David Harbour are huge stars and brilliant actors. It's the kind of film that requires you to up your game. I couldn't have asked for a better international debut."

With Extraction behind him, Painyuli says he harbours dreams of doing action on screen and it may come true with his next, Rashmi Rocket, headlined by Taapsee Pannu. "We were to shoot this month but it stands suspended for now. I play the role of an army officer. So, I ensure to workout regularly at home to avoid taking too long to attain the right level of fitness required for the film."

Amid the Coronavirus lockdown, the actor also seems to be busy with his virtual theatre act titled Lockdown Love. After the success of the English version, which saw him pair up with Shriya Pilgaonkar, Painyuli will feature in the Hinglish version of the same show with Radhika Madan, Kubbra Sait, Shikha Talsania, Siddharth Menon and Saurabh Nayar. "We are adapting a few more characters from the original play. It's about three girls and three boys finding each other through a series of weird dates. Who would have thought that we'd be performing live for 45 minutes in front of our phone cameras? It is directed by Sheena Khalid and the story was adapted by Roshan Abbas from an old script, which was revisited and adapted from Jonathan Rand's Check Please," explains the actor.

Kavita Awaasthi (HINDUSTAN TIMES; April 25, 2020)

Shriya Pilgaonkar turns a year older today, and this year, her prayer and wish is for “all of us all to overcome the Coronavirus pandemic”. “The last three birthdays have been on a set and I have been grateful to be working on my birthday. But this year, I am happy to be home with my family. The pandemic has made me realise that there are so many basic things which we take for granted. I am aware of the privileges that I have and I did my bit by donating. There won’t be much of a birthday celebration but dad [Sachin Pilgaonkar; actor] is going to cook a dish for me.”

Prior to the lockdown, the actor was constantly travelling and so the first week of staying home was about chilling, spending time with family, reading and watching content. “Doing chores at home takes up a lot of the day and now, there is even more gratitude towards all the help we have. I didn’t want a sense of lethargy to kick in so, I took a course on screenwriting,” she says.

As the pandemic has affected every industry, Pilgaonkar feels that today, people are trying to be creative in their own way. “I enjoyed performing a play online called Lockdown Lovers, produced by Roshan Abbas. We performed it live and that was an experience like no other. We are also working on another series. But I think, it will be a while before things get back to normal as priority today, is to be safe. So, we will have to pull through in these times,” she says.

Vir Das and Jonita Gandhi

From live-streaming music gigs and comedy specials to interactive plays, mid-day gets a behind-the-scenes understanding of virtual entertainment amid the lockdown
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; April 17, 2020)

The film and television industry may have come to a screeching halt, but Indian viewers are, by no means, short on entertainment. When Prateek Kuhad is not live-streaming his performance on the Internet, Vir Das pops up on your laptop screen, ready with his at-home comedy special. In the three weeks of lockdown, how we consume entertainment has changed as much as how we live, with an increasing number of artistes exploring virtual gigs.

Amongst the first to tap into this was BookMyShow that enabled various virtual live properties, including performances by Indian Ocean and Karsh Kale. "Thanks to great collaborations and Instagram as the host platform, we brought live music, dramatised readings, poetry recitals and stand-up comedy sessions to the safety of viewers' homes. We kickstarted the #StayFitIndiaChallenge that features over 50 trainers offering more than 500 fitness sessions," says Albert Almeida, COO, Live Entertainment, BookMyShow.

He explains that they promote an upcoming offering aggressively through various social media channels to ensure maximum eyeballs. "#LiveInYourLivingRoom, which had Armaan Malik, Ankur Tewari, and Jonita Gandhi performing, amassed close to half a million viewers."

While promotion is the relatively easy part of the game, the execution poses a bigger challenge. Ask Roshan Abbas (right), whose company Kommune took entertainment a step ahead by curating the virtual play, Lockdown Love, that was performed over Zoom by Priyanshu Painyuli and Shriya Pilgaonkar.

"We experimented for two weeks with the core team to perfect the technological aspect of our play. A week went into scripting and casting, after which we prepped for the next few days. The challenge here is the [Internet's] bandwidth. We took feedback after our first preview on Sunday, and people categorically said two things — that it's a lot less personal than regular plays, and it should be made more interactive. So, we will be incorporating these aspects in our next show," explains Abbas.

While the Internet has its share of open-to-all gigs, organisers are slowly moving towards monetising the acts. For instance, Abbas's play was priced at Rs 499 per person. "The proceeds from the gig went to charity. As far as monetisation goes, there are different models to tap into different sections of the audience. Some comics are selling their shows for Rs 299 and there are four-week virtual workshops available for Rs 5,000." He adds that this could be the way ahead as brands are heavily investing in virtual content. "After all, for the next few months, this is the new normal."

It is evident that there is no dearth of takers — Vir Das has sold out 12 virtual shows of Vir Das At Home, tickets for which were priced at Rs 499. "Technology has made it easier for us to plan and produce shows over video calls. The audience is available out there. How long can it be sustained? That's tough to say. I hope people keep coming in larger numbers over the next few weeks. If there's a demand, there will be supply."


The team of Lockdown Love during their prep


Prateek Kuhad and Ankur Tiwari singing live from home

As told to Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 18, 2019)

For my first job, I performed a 20-minute musical skit at Pragati Maidan, a trade fair centre, in Delhi. It was directed by Roshan Abbas and was about a couple getting married. I was in first year of college back then and was paid Rs 10,000 for a week, which was big money for me and I opened my bank account with it. I had only done school plays before that.

After that I did anchoring jobs that got me some extra pocket money. As an emcee for corporate events and in shopping mall set-ups, I would be put in weird situations and had to handle the crowds well, but I was getting paid a lot of money for it. I also did print ads in Delhi and was paid Rs 3000 for my photograph that appeared in a soap ad. It was the first ever close-up photo I had seen of myself with makeup on.

I moved to Mumbai with all the money I had saved up and some portfolio pictures. I happened to meet (writer-editor) Apurva Asrani who used to work with Sony Music then. He auditioned me, and I landed two music videos, “Tera Mera Pyaar” sung by Kumar Sanu, and Shreya Ghoshal’s “Yeh Kya Hua”, as they were looking for a new face. I got paid just Rs five-10 thousand for the videos, but I started getting work after that in Mumbai. I also featured in a Kailash Kher video and did many more.

With the first two videos, I was facing the camera for the first time and was clueless. “Tera Mera Pyaar” was shot at Fame Adlabs theatre. For the second video, a massive set was put up at Kamalistan studio. I had never seen a set from inside before that. I was so fascinated, it felt like I had entered a Ramayana kind of a set-up with the pond, swans and trees. There was a point in the video where my pallu comes off and the male model and I come closer. I was so shy, in my head it was a big thing. I freaked out but Apurva was very sweet, he told me it would look beautiful onscreen. I kept fretting… what if it looked too sexy? What would my family say? Now, Apurva and I laugh about it.

Initially, my mum was worried that I was in Mumbai alone, but she was always supportive. When I was without work, she wondered what my next job would be and ask me, “How long do you plan to do this?”

Before I landed The Lunchbox, I did theatre for four years. Ads were getting me the money, but they weren’t getting me experience as an actor. I started watching plays and figured out the kind of work and people I wanted to be associated with. Soon, I got two plays, Damages and All About Women, and won a Best Actress award at a youth theatre festival for the former. I was thrilled; I couldn’t believe I’d won an award for my first play. In Damages I acted with Ali Fazal, while I got a lot of love for All About Women and did maximum shows. Another one, called Baghdad Wedding, also did well.

It was the plays that led Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox director) to me. He was in India to cast for his film and later told me that he had seen some of my plays before he met me. The rest, as they say, is history.


A still from the song ‘Tera Mera Pyaar’

As told to Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 20, 2018)

Before I became a model, I used to help backstage during fashion shows in Delhi, assisting the girls who were walking the ramp with their clothes and accessories, running around during photoshoots assembling clothes and more such chores. The money was good — Rs 300 a day was a big deal back then — and I got to work with many successful supermodels like Madhu Sapre, Noyonika Chatterjee, Carol Gracias, John Abraham, Dino Morea and Arjun Rampal among others.

I have also taken on odd jobs at auto expos during summer holidays to make some extra money. I would get between Rs 500-Rs 1000 a day and didn’t even know how to spend that much money.

I never imagined I would end up becoming a model and actress myself because while growing up, I was made to believe that I would become an IAS officer and do something for the country as my dad was in the navy. What life had in store for me and what I was working towards were completely different worlds.

One day, auditions were being held in various colleges for a stage production. It was being directed by Roshan Abbas and choreographed by Shiamak Davar. Cyrus Sahukar, Gaurav Kapoor, Samir Kochhar and my brother, Hardeep, were among those who auditioned for it. I went to pick up my best friend and Roshan spotted me. He asked if I’ve acted before and I exclaimed, “Never!” He told me I had just landed my first role.

During the theatre production, there was a photographer in the audience who wanted to do a photoshoot with me. He thought my face had the potential. While he was clicking me, he told me his agency was auditioning for a music video. This was in December 1998 and I landed that role too. My first music video, “Sha Na Na Na”, was directed by Pradeep Sarkar. Shoojit Sircar was the executive producer and it was for the band Euphoria. I had never travelled by air or been abroad but thanks to that music video I got to work with a popular rock band, be on TV and even got paid. By the time I came back to college, I was famous!

My mum and uncle then saw an advertisement for the auditions for Miss India. I went for it and was told I would have to lose 10 kgs in two weeks. I did and ended up winning the crown in 2002 (right, above). And got me plenty of modelling offers which I was only too happy to grab.

Being an assistant earlier helped when I became a model myself. I was very disciplined. No job was big or small for me as I understood the importance of coordination and collaboration. I have always been a stickler for perfection and the one thing that makes my blood boil is incompetence. I would lock myself up in a room and scream!

At the age of 20, I spent six months in Tokyo promoting my debut film, an Indo-Japanese project, Nattu Odoru! Ninja Densetsu (right), a major part of which was shot in Chennai. Living in a city where I had no connections was interesting. I liked the vibe of the place. My parents didn’t have a computer then so they would go to a cyber café to interact with me. It was all vert heart-warming.

Three years later, in 2003, my first Hindi film, Qayamat: City Under Threat (below), produced and directed by Harry Baweja, opened. I was cast opposite Ajay Devgn, and it was a big launch. Fifteen years later, I’m still around, awaiting the release of Helicopter Eela with Kajol and Riddhi Sen. The mother-son story is directed by Pradeep Sarkar. Life has come a full circle.