Despite the accolades and decades of experience, actor and director Ananth Mahadevan says he is often overlooked for roles that he believes are tailor-made for him. The latest disappointment? The Manoj Bajpayee-starrer Governor.

After playing RBI governor S Venkitaramanan in Hansal Mehta’s Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020), Mahadevan earned widespread praise. Yet, when casting began for A Ramanan — a character reportedly inspired by S Venkitaramanan — nobody approached him.

“When Scam 1992 came out, Manoj was one of the first persons to acknowledge my performance on social media, before Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Shahid Kapoor. I would have given the role an edge and looked like the character of the Governor, had I been given the chance,” laments Mahadevan. He adds that filmmakers today often “lack maturity” in their thinking.

While Bajpayee may enjoy greater popularity, Mahadevan argues that both actors are ultimately valued for their craft. “Manoj may be a more popular star than me but he has a different grade of popularity. He is not in the rat race, as he himself admits. If they had got Kamal Haasan to play that part, I would have been fine with it.”

The actor says this isn’t the first time he has been sidelined. He recalls messaging director Neeraj Pandey about the R D Burman biopic with photographs, only to receive no response. “Maybe because they wanted more commercial options,” he says.

“If they had taken a Bengali actor who looked like the music director, that would have been alright. I have nothing against Farhan Akhtar, his father [Javed Akhtar] is a dear friend, but if I was making the film, would I cast Farhan? No.”

- ‘Thiruda Thiruda’ (1993): Mahadevan says director Mani Ratnam had initially considered him for the CBI inspector’s role, which eventually went to SP Balasubrahmanyam.

- ‘Halo’ (1996): He says cinematographer-director Santosh Sivan had approached him for a father’s role, but filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi ultimately played the part.

Stepping into the shoes of a revolutionary for a biopic can be exhilarating as well as daunting. For Pratik Gandhi, it’s doubly so, as he will be seen essaying two leaders—Mahatma Gandhi in Hansal Mehta’s web series, Gandhi, and Jyotirao Phule in Ananth Mahadevan’s Phule—soon. As he offers a retelling of Gandhi leading India’s freedom fight against the British, and Phule’s anti-caste movement, Pratik highlights that the two social leaders had a similar starting point.

“The one thing common between them is that before they did what they did, they were like us. My journey to create these two characters starts when they weren’t Mahatmas. So, I have explored them as humans, with their passion, zest, and that fire from within,” shares the actor.

Besides the two releases, the year ahead looks creatively exciting for Pratik, who has three films and a new play in the pipeline. Since breaking out in Hindi entertainment with Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020), he has steadily become among the most talented and reliable actors of the current crop. But the actor reveals that even today, he faces rejections.

“When discussing their next theatrical film, the [makers] tell me, ‘We need an actor who can get the audience to the theatres. You have done very well, but on OTT.’ So, the onus is on me to prove myself in yet another medium,” he says. This comes even after he delivered a theatrical hit in Madgaon Express last year. “But the fact that I have to mention my success says a lot. If I have to blow my own trumpet, what sense does it make?”

It could make one bitter, but not Pratik. The actor admits that years of rejection, before he found success, have prepared him for such curveballs.

He reflects, “If success had come in the first attempt itself, it might have been difficult to be realistic. But rejections have prepared me for fame and handling success. They have also prepared me to stay away from negativity and think differently, where I take the onus of everything. [I think that] I haven’t given the other person enough reasons to cast me. So, I want to excel to a level that even without any leverage, people would want to work with me.”

While Mahatma Gandhi led India’s freedom fight against the British, Jyotirao Phule fought the rampant casteism in India. Despite their different causes, Pratik Gandhi notes that both leaders, in their own way, believed in the philosophy of non-violence.

“Gandhi’s circumstances and motives were incidental. Phule was victimized because of casteism and took a stand through education. He believed that people could only fight with education. So, in a way, he, [like Gandhi], promoted ahimsa; he might not have called it that,” he states.

Vivek Gomber with Jai Mehta on the set

It may have been a month since the final episode of his latest work, the Disney Plus Hotstar action drama Lootere released, but Jai Mehta says words of appreciation continue to pour in. “I am humbled. It has been interesting to see the reaction because it wasn’t a conventional show. It does not [cater to] the target audience of the web platform. But the response has been reaffirming—the audience watches everything, and we can’t take them for granted,” he says.

Lootere, which chronicled the tale of the hijacking of an Indian ship by Somali pirates, marked Mehta’s independent feature debut after co-directing the 2020 Pratik Gandhi-starrer show, Scam 1992, with his filmmaker-father Hansal Mehta. For Mehta junior, the audience’s reception of Lootere was crucial, as he believes this project is a fitting reflection of his vision as a storyteller.

“Scam was ultimately Hansal Mehta’s brainchild. I love Scam, but Lootere takes me closer to the filmmaker I want to be. I like to focus on the style, music and scale of a project. Although I have been part of production ventures that were [challenging to film], like Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur and Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh, Lootere was one of the toughest of them all.”

But Mehta isn’t one to rest on his laurels. “I am working on a lot of stuff,” he smiles, sharing that he is developing a period crime drama based on a true story for Abundantia Entertainment. “It has been co-written by Vishal Kapoor and me. Vishal also wrote Lootere, with me. I have been writing it for five years. It’s a homage to all the films that have made me the filmmaker I am today. It’s a hat tip to films like Memories Of Murder, I Saw The Devil, select Ram Gopal Varma films, and all the movies that I have enjoyed in the crime drama space. This will be my love letter to them.”

Mehta plans to take the film—set in Bihar in the ’80s—on floors this year. “Visually, the film will look big, because I will shoot it with wide-angle lenses. It will be an emotional offering,” he signs off.

“Disney’s mandate doesn’t allow the title of father on screen,” Hansal Mehta displays disarming candour as he opens up about his motivation to board son Jai’s latest directorial, Lootere, as showrunner. This is not the first time Jai has taken up director duties—he co-directed Sony LIV series Scam 1992 (2020) with Hansal, his director-producer father—but it’s the first time he is the captain of his ship, prompting senior Mehta’s emotional involvement. 

“The only reason for me to be the showrunner was that it was Jai’s solo directorial. I have seen him in action before, but it was good to see him taking charge this time and not having to fight with me,” he chuckles. Before collaborating with his father on the web series, Jai served as associate director on several of his films, including Shahid, Citylights and Aligarh. This time, Mehta wasn’t instructing him.

“I was handling him. We served as a sponge for each other. When Shaailesh [R Singh, show’s co-creator, co-writer and producer] had an issue and wanted to tell Jai something, he’d target me, because Jai would be at the shoot. He would call and scream. I would say, ‘Okay, okay. I will talk to Jai.’ Then I would convey the message to him, but in a different way. Similarly, if Jai was facing frustration, he couldn’t share it with his team; a director must keep the morale high. So, he too would come to me.”

Jai doesn’t feel the difference, though. The roles might have changed, but his father’s unwavering support stands. “He has been supportive, including for my short films.. and I have made some terrible ones; some even I don’t have copies of,” he laughs.

Their filmmaking styles are different, but there’s much that they share in common as people. Like their ability to veil emotions as mature professionals. “I refer to him as Hansal Sir. The last time I called him on the phone and addressed him as ‘dad’, he asked, ‘Do you need money? What happened? Why are you calling me dad?’,” Jai says.

It can be attributed to the fact that their relationship has been built on film sets. To Hansal, their shared love for the movies is what makes them father and son. “We have spent more time on set than we have at home together. He was born when I was barely 23. I was searching for myself and in that search, I managed to find my son when I needed him, which was when he became assistant director. We have ended up discovering each other on set. We have spent the most intense times together and discovered each other as people, passionate about films and telling stories. So, it [cinema] keeps us together.” 

Even before he joined his father on the set as assistant, Jai had developed an intimate connection with Mehta’s filmmaker self. He grew up watching a director failing with every movie and trying again. “A lot of people know of Hansal Mehta only after he made Shahid [2013]. He made six films before that. That’s something no one will talk about. Even he won’t,” Jai laughs, before adding, “I have two younger sisters. Their father is the director of Shahid, Citylights, Aligarh, Scam, Scoop. [But] the father I know is the director of Jayate, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, Chhal, three unreleased films. Of Raakh too. I grew up with that director.”

Shahid, a critically acclaimed film based on the life of lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi, who was assassinated in 2010, it starred Rajkummar Rao, and brought Mehta the Best Director gong at the 2014 National Film Awards.  

Evidently, it has not been easy. Mehta is the first in his family to take up filmmaking. “We aren’t film royalty,” Jai declares. 

In a rare display of emotion, Mehta sounds poignant while painting a picture of Jai’s childhood and their journey as a family.  “He has seen me through days that weren’t exactly ideal, struggling to find myself and keep our lives together. We were searching for a structure as family when things were going haywire. Jai has lived through the troubles of a slightly complicated childhood,” Mehta says.

In a bid to snap out of this reflective moment, Jai quickly adds, “But there are no regrets. There’s only good from here on. You don’t look back. You think about all that you learnt and use that to do better.” 

And the biggest learning from a challenging childhood is to never give up. “There was a time when he felt, ‘What am I doing?’ And he did take a break [from filmmaking] but ultimately, he returned and did Shahid, which took two years to make, and another year and a half to release. It was tough but he never stopped.”

It’s been five years since Nawazuddin Siddiqui made his digital debut with Sacred Games. The OTT space has evolved considerably since. In conversation with us, the actor points out the pros and the cons of this change. He shares, “Things have evolved, yes. Shuruwat jo hai woh bahut honesty ke saath hoti hai, and later it just becomes a commodity… uska ek dhanda ban jata hai. And this happens in every industry, not just showbiz.”

Talking about how the change in the outlook towards the medium affects the content that’s created for it, he says, “It leads to downgrading of the quality of all the departments because it becomes a race…bas jald se jald banado aur logon ko dikha do. Likewise, when you are starting off there’s an honesty, but later, that fades away too.”

Having said that, he shares that there are a few shows that definitely caught his attention. “I have seen Panchayat and Scam 1992. And I saw it not because of its marketing or PR buzz, but because common people were talking about it and that generated my interest,” he says.

Ask the actor if OTT, like Bollywood, has become star-driven too, and he says, “Ab ho gaya hai waise, pehle nahi tha. I feel that doesn’t matter to the OTT audience though; what matters to them is the content. Over a period of time stars ne bhi behti Ganga mein apne haath dhone ki koshish karli. But as far as I know, the original OTT audience was very different.”

Nawaz, who has been a part of OTT films like Serious Men, Haddi and Tiku Weds Sheru, feels that there’s a certain kind of fatigue when it comes to consuming OTT content now. “I do feel the audience is now tired. There are many actors who come and tell me that they have done so and so web show, but I haven’t even heard the names. Due to this abundance, humein pata hi nahi chal raha ki kitne series ban rahe hai aur release ho rahe hai.”

So, is it time makers introspect? “No, no... why should they do that? See, directors and actors are waiting for opportunities. The medium has plenty of work for all. We wait ki koi hamare paas kuch interesting project leke aaye, but there’s this rush ki we need to finish the shoot as fast as we can and drop the show online. I like what my friend actor-writer Hussain Dalal once told me ki OTT is TV plus, which means TV se thoda behetar.”

It's 2021. The hindi film industry, like the rest of the country, is staring at uncertainty due to COVID-19. At home, actor Gagan Dev Riar wonders how he will pay next month’s rent. A call interrupts his thoughts and changes his life. “It was a casting call. I was told they wanted to test me for the lead part of Mr Abdul Karim Tegli’s role,” he recalls.

It’s 2023, two years later, and Riar’s phone hasn’t stop ringing with calls from all around the country to congratulate him for his portrayal of Telgi in Hansal Mehta’s Scam 2003. “A couple of days ago, at 4 am, some people called me. I don’t know their names. They, I think, were a little drunk and they wanted to organize a party for me somewhere. They said, ‘We will put up your hoardings and we will do parties, sir.’ I was laughing sitting in my room,” Riar chuckles.

But he remembers his first audition for the show being less than perfect. “I was not very excited about it because those were little depressing times for all of us courtesy COVID. So, I just prepared a little bit and I went for the audition. They didn’t enjoy it. ‘We have seen you perform on stage, do something like that, magical,’ I was told. I realized I was taking it a little lightly. I should not have. I wasn’t doing my job properly,” he says.

His theatre career has been prolific: He is notably known for his portrayal of Sir Toby Belch, which won him the META award for best supporting actor 2014 for Piya Behroopiya (A Hindi adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night).

The feedback altered something within him, and he invested a couple of days into preparing his own script for the next audition. And magic happened. “Hansal sir got on a call with me after the new audition. He said, ‘Gagan, it was a beautiful audition and from my side, you are confirmed. Just give me a week’s time. I’ll just convince Sony people and Applause Entertainment because they also have to make decisions’. Within one week he called me again and said, ‘We are on. Just start putting on weight now.’ It was all of very filmy,” he smiles.

The moment of filmy fantasy didn’t last too long as Riar dived into the process of physically transforming into Telgi that turned out more daunting than he expected. Gagan candidly shares that the weight gain journey almost caused him body image issues.

“I did have my weaker moments when I was gaining the weight. I wasn’t able to look at myself in the mirror because I never knew that I could look like this. I told my nutritionist I was getting depressed because I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror. He said, ‘Put curtain on your mirrors till the time you finish the shoot to avoid it,’” Riar shares. 

When the shoot finally began April last year, the actor found his concerns vanishing in no time. “My acting has always helped me gain that confidence back. A compliment on a good shot boosts your ego. Then you take that one little ounce of confidence and take another step, and then you take one day at a time. That’s how I completed this journey,” he says.

The emotional ride that he took to bring the man, who committed one of the biggest financial frauds in the country to life, was far more enjoyable for Riar, though. Even though the series is based on the book Telgi: Ek Reporter ki Diary, the actor considered the script his Bible and showrunner Mehta, his guide.

“Flawed is the word to use for Telgi. Many people use the word criminal and scamster. Yes, there was a scam and yes it was a crime, but I would love to go with the word flawed. Hansal sir actually gave me this idea that I should not think of him as a villain. If I do that, I’ll not be able to play it with the honesty and humanity because at the end of the day, we all are humans and we all are flawed,” he says.

He also added, “Every character has a vulnerability. Telgi also had his weak as well as strong moments. He loved and he hated, everything that a human being does in his or her life. That’s how I wanted to go about it,” he explains.

For now, he is the actor of the moment. When he met Pratik Gandhi recently, the actor who played Harshad Mehta in Scam 1992, Gandhi had some life advice to impart. “At the Scam party, we clicked many photographs together and I said to him, ‘I haven’t done this ever before. How long will the photo session go for?’ He replied, ‘Get used to it now,’” the actor says.

It was obvious to presume that after the astonishing success of Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, the filmmaker would also direct Scam 2003: The Telgi Story, but Hansal Mehta handed the baton over to Tushar Hiranandani. Was it trust or a need to change the vision? “The show needed a fresh pair of eyes. Scam remains my baby, but now it also has a new parent,” begins Mehta, who serves as the showrunner of Sony LIV’s latest offering that is based on Sanjay Singh’s Telgi Scam: Reporter ki Diary.

Even though the second part of the season is yet to air, Mehta is thrilled that his decision to rope in Hiranandani paid off. “Tushar brings in an element of entertainment because of his experience in commercial cinema. I wanted that in Scam 2003, because Telgi is a different beast from Harshad Mehta,” says the showrunner, adding that following this experience, he is keen to build more collaborations with other directors on shows while he takes on the larger role of a showrunner.

“I enjoy mentoring the format and guiding the process. Scam has given us so much love and changed so many lives; [it is] a responsibility to keep that spirit alive.”

Another crucial task at hand for Mehta and his team was to find their Telgi. Courtesy the benchmark set by Pratik Gandhi in Scam 1992. People wanted to see if the makers could recreate the magic with Scam 2003. While the show has received mixed reviews, the casting of Gagan Dev Riar as Abdul Karim Telgi has passed with flying colours. But the filmmaker asserts that any comparison between Gandhi and Riar would be unfair.

“I feel blessed that I am able to give a platform to actors like Gagan because he is such a phenomenal talent. It was a difficult part to play. There’s no scope to look conventionally attractive with a pot belly and awkward [body language that shows him] constantly pulling his pants up. He is not suave or well-dressed. Yet, he has a riveting presence. Gagan is too seasoned an actor to take the pressure of comparisons with Pratik. Not only are their characters different, but even their approach is different,” expresses Mehta, who believes that the only commonality between the two is their acting prowess.

The creator-director also reveals that the journey of Scam is far from over. “We are now discussing ideas for the third season. It will be nice to return to the chair [of the director] for the third season,” he smiles.

Tushar Hiranandani and Hansal Mehta

To Rajkummar Rao, Raj-DK (Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK) are friends first, then collaborators. The opportunity to be directed by them, coupled with an exciting story, made Guns & Gulaabs an instant choice for the actor. “While Raj-DK were my co-producers and writers on Stree [2018], this is the first time they directed me. They are two of my closest people in the city. We had been meaning to work together for a long time,” he smiles.

Rao is known for seeking novel stories, and Guns & Gulaabs didn’t disappoint on that count. The Netflix crime comedy, also starring Dulquer Salmaan and Adarsh Gourav, has all the ingredients of a Raj-DK offering—oddball characters and quirky humour tied neatly into an engaging narrative. “There have been many serious crime and investigative dramas, but sometimes you need a break. You just want to sit and laugh out loud at bizarre things, and nobody does that better than Raj-DK,” says the actor.

In the upcoming series, he plays Paana Tipu, a love-struck mechanic with a violent streak. The actor credits Raj-DK and their writing team for conceiving a screenplay that gave him enough scope to explore his character’s eccentricity. “When you get great material and fabulous [collaborators] like Raj and DK, it becomes easy. You just have to push yourself a little and do something that you haven’t done earlier. If you aren’t here to just say lines and if you do your job for the right reasons, you get the results.”

But hard work doesn’t always assure you of great box-office results. Since the pandemic, there has been a shift in viewing patterns of the audience, who prefer watching tentpole movies on the big screen and content-led offerings on OTT. Rao looks at the upside of the situation, pointing out that with streaming services, actors don’t need to depend on box office to achieve stardom.

“For instance, I was blown away by Suvinder Vicky’s performance in Kohrra. For me, he is a star. It doesn’t matter to me if 1,000 people have watched Suvinder Vicky’s work or only 400 have, but he is one of the best actors we have today. The same thing happened with Jaideep [Ahlawat] in Paatal Lok [2020] and Pratik Gandhi in Scam 1992 [2020]. Manoj sir’s [Bajpayee] second innings started with The Family Man, and today, he is right up there.”

Is it a keen eye, or instinct? Or both? In his 23-year film career, Hansal Mehta has displayed a knack not only for compelling stories, but also for scouting talent. Be it Rajkummar Rao or Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020) find Pratik Gandhi, the director has brought gifted actors to the fore. His yet-untitled next unites him with Kareena Kapoor Khan, a superstar at the top of her game. Not habituated to collaborations with big stars, Mehta says he was taken by Khan’s command over her craft.

“It was an absolute joy to work with her. She is such a good actor,” he begins. The noir thriller, which sees Kapoor playing a cop, marks the confluence of two different cinematic sensibilities—while the actor’s filmography is dominated by mainstream masala offerings, the director leans towards raw and hard-hitting movies. So, what happens when the two worlds come together?

“One thing I can say is you will see a new Kareena in the film. We had a very good time shooting the film. With her, it’s the same kind of chemistry that I have with Rajkummar, Pratik, Mohd Zeeshan [Ayyub] and Karishma [Tanna],” he smiles.

Tanna and Ayyub star in Mehta’s Scoop, which dropped on Netflix last month and has  been widely praised since. Success is sweet, but freedom tastes better, agrees the director, who has bagged a multi-series deal with the streaming platform after the series’ success. “It gives me an added blanket of security. I know [now] that the stories I want to tell have a space, where they will be embraced wholeheartedly. I applied a lot of learnings from Scam 1992 on Scoop. [One of them is] that if you tell authentic Indian stories in an honest and engaging manner while trusting the audience’s intelligence, they can be told,” he says.

Casting television actor Tanna as the lead could have been a challenge, but the director says that the success of Scam 1992 put him in a position of power to defend his choice. “That’s the power of success. Because Scam succeeded, I could have these casting negotiations. It took an Applause [Entertainment] to believe in Pratik, for Netflix to believe in the casting choice of Karishma.”

Scam 1992 (2020) actor Hemant Kher put up a “humble request” on Thursday to filmmakers to consider him for projects. “I am full of zeal and enthusiasm to explore as an actor (sic),” he tweeted. Kher, however, laments that his tweet was misconstrued as a sign of lack of work. “I want to increase my flow of work. Aisa bilkul nahin hai ki mere paas kaam zero hai. That was misinterpreted,” Kher says.

The actor adds that he never shies away from reaching out to directors and casting agents for work. However, this time, he wished to go an extra mile. After wrapping up most of his projects in March, he thought it through before putting up a tweet. “As actors, that’s our job. We keep looking for work. My motive was simple: I wanted to reach out to as many people as I could. I am not sad or out of work,” Kher explains.

With over 20 years of experience, the National School of Drama alum shares that patience is the virtue for an actor. “In an actor’s life, there comes a time when you don’t have much work. But one should keep trying. I thought that people may think that I’m out of work [before tweeting], but usmein kya sharam? You need to be polite and egoless. There’s no shame in asking for work,” he ends.

When we sit down for a meal or to unwind, one of the first things we tend to do is pick out a web show to watch on our phone. As a result of this growing popularity of streaming platforms these days, there has been a dip in people’s attention span too, feels actor Sharib Hashmi.

“Log paanch minute mein hi decide kar lete hain [if a show is good or bad]. Today, no one will spend two hours watching bad content,” he says.

This, in turn, has made the web space more competitive. “There is more pressure to deliver good content; that’s your primary responsibility on OTT. There’s a treasure of content here. If you want to shine, you have to be excellent,” says the 47-year-old, who was recently seen in the film Mission Majnu.

Having done a host of OTT projects, including Scam 1992, The Family Man and Asur, Hashmi is a fan of the transparency the web offers. “The only thing that matters is word of mouth. I saw that with all my projects. Scam released with less publicity, the platform was not even that popular back then. But, the show was a huge success. If the product is good, you don’t even need to promote it. Word of mouth makes people come sniffing. The response is also immediate,” he reasons.

Does this make social media equally vital, to gauge whether or not a project is successful? “Yes, we are dependent on social media,” he says, adding, “With the web, it’s not as if you have purchased a ticket. When you go to watch a film in a cinema hall, people tend to stick around at least till the interval, probably because they feel they have paid and need to get their money’s worth. But on OTT, if they don’t like something, das minute mein move on kar jaate hain.”

Though Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan-starrer Vikram Vedha (2022) didn’t manage to earn the expected numbers at the box office, Sharib Hashmi feels the project benefitted his career. The actor, who played the antagonist in the Pushkar–Gayathri directorial, feels the movie helped him with an image makeover.

“I was overwhelmed with the response my character Babloo bhaiya got. Mehnat ki thi iss film pe. Pehli baar aisa kirdaar play kar raha tha. The directors really worked hard on my character,” he says.

The Family Man actor adds, “Vikram Vedha was a win-win for me. I played a supporting role, but I got appreciation messages from many people from the industry. Even though it was commercially unsuccessful, mere liye Vikram Vedha bahut badi success thi.”

Addressing the disappointing box-office numbers, the 46-year-old says they were “a mystery” for the team, too. “It had all the right things — Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, comedy, action… When a film doesn’t perform as per expectations, it is saddening. It’s a different thing to be associated with a film that works, because one benefits from it. For example, in Scam 1992, I just had one scene and it got appreciation. I am only seen in the beginning, but even then people remember me,” he ends.

Pratik Gandhi, who’s been comfortably balancing films, theatre and OTT projects in 2022, says he doesn’t “feel the pressure” and “doesn’t mind living out of suitcases. ” The actor, who’s made his mark on OTT, wants to do more regional cinema. Excerpts from a chat:

It’s true Scam 1992 changed everything for me and took me to a different phase in my life, but I don’t know why people are touting this film as my ‘return’. I’d like to say, I ‘never left’ the Gujarati industry. It’s true that my mainstream Hindi films and web series commitments hardly leave me time for anything else. Besides doing commercial films, I would like to do interesting Gujarati projects that give me ample scope to perform. I am open to doing other regional cinema too, but there’s a certain degree of comfort in performing in my mother tongue that helps me perform better.

I do want to be part of other regional film industries. In fact, with the look I donned for Scam, I had even tried approaching many south Indian makers for work in their projects, but that didn’t work out. Now that regional cinema is creating some out-of-the-box content both for OTT and the big screen, there’s enough work for talented actors. I am being picky because I want to be part of challenging projects. As an actor, I have to constantly raise the bar for myself and give the audience something new every time.

I have waited for this hectic phase for more than a decade and finally when I am getting to live it, I have no complaints at all. I am lucky to have got a chance to work with great filmmakers, power house performers and mind-blowing concepts – something that every actor wants to cherish. I’d say, 2022 has been a very productive year for me, I did some good films as well as OTT projects. I don’t look at the fees I am being offered for a project, for me the script should be exciting to play the character.

Hansal Mehta, who had a smashing success in Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020), believes that the biggest upside of success is telling stories with abandon, without falling prey to compromises. “What has obviously changed for me is that I make some money,” he quips. “Besides that, I will always do what I do best—tell stories fearlessly. Success has emboldened me to continue being fearless.”

His pursuit for brave stories has led him to Faraaz. After Scam 1992 that caught the nation’s interest, Mehta has shifted gears to make an admittedly “small” film featuring Zahaan Kapoor and Aditya Rawal. The film—which recounts the 2016 terror attack in Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, where armed gunmen held customers hostage for 12 hours before killing over 20 of them—was premiered at the BFI London Film Festival last month.

“It was a conscious decision that the moment Scam 1992 comes out, I will get this film going [regardless of the former’s fate]. I have made it exactly how it should be made. It has no trapping, no stars. Casting for the movie wasn’t easy. We took months to get Aditya and Zahaan. Along with them, there are five new faces in the film. There was an exhaustive audition process; we then workshopped for months. Even when we shot, I would constantly shift the scenario. I wanted people to respond to the scenes in an impromptu way. The film is an example of exceptional casting.”

The hostage drama is set to release at a time when the world around us is increasingly sensitive. What are the challenges of telling stories that have a social impact, at such a time? “Shahid [2013] is on YouTube right now, and is completely mutilated as a movie. It hurts me as a maker. The film begins with the riot sequence eliminated. The challenge is to continue telling stories and find like-minded collaborators. On Faraaz, I lucked out. I found Anubhav Sinha and Bhushan Kumar to back the film. Given the socio-cultural climate we are in, the challenge is to release the film. Even business-wise, these are challenging times and we have to maximise a film’s potential to reach the masses and minimise monetary risk.”

Ask any teenager from the late 90s and even the most unassuming one will confess to a notorious history of discovering new music and movies through piracy. The noughties arrived with bootleg video libraries and dial-up internet modems. And the new web-straddling generation — mostly ignorant or uncaring of ethical and legal bearings of piracy — were either buying shaky-cam versions of a blockbuster off the streets or downloading entire discographies and films over peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

It was only a crackdown on illegal sites and shops and the advent of streaming tech that prompted ex-torrenters to kick their habit. However, piracy is anything but dead.

Turns out, if streaming services love the cloud, the pirates love it too since it makes it easier to download, mirror and circulate content illegally and harder for broadcasters to track them. The year 2020 particularly sparked a video piracy bonanza as the pandemic kept people home and out of theatres. Antipiracy agency Aiplex in Bengaluru notes that 23 million people in India had watched at least one episode of ‘Scam 1992’ although Sony LIV accounted for only two million subscribers while ‘Aashram’, one of MX Player’s most popular shows, would have gained 20% more viewership if watched legally.

“According to a report by Digital TV Research in 2021, the loss of revenue for OTT players on account of piracy in India is expected to hit $3.08 billion by 2022, while the cost of global online streaming piracy will reach $52 billion by 2022,” points out Girish Kumar, managing director of Aiplex.

Gautam Talwar, chief content officer for MX Player, calls piracy a “hard habit to break” given people’s inclination to download pirated versions of their content despite shows being available for free on their ad-driven platform. Talwar, during a recent consumer survey, stumbled upon hole-in-the-wall shops that have sprung up in cities like Indore and Bhopal where every web series available on every platform is being sold for as little as Rs 20.

“These are located close to coaching centres and youngsters equipped with laptops and catalogues of entire series with their IMDb ratings are transferring content onto people’s phones. It’s so organized that it’s scary. It’s hurting the business and creative people,” says Talwar.

“The exponential growth of OTT services has sort of facilitated piracy because the same technology of sending content over a high-speed internet connection is being leveraged by pirates to distribute and monetize content,” says Sharath Kumar, founder and CEO of the Chennai-based MassBunk Antipiracy that recently removed 14,000 pirated links of the film ‘Vikram’, within a week of its release.

As piracy enters this new landscape, techies like Sharath and Girish Kumar, with their teams comprising data scientists, software engineers, copyright experts and offline investigators, are using artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art proprietary tools to tackle the tidal wave of pirated content on the web.

“As a computer engineer fresh out of college in 2016, my dream was to become a filmmaker. But as a techie, watching piracy destroy budding directors and producers, I decided to get together with a few college mates and design something that would weed out piracy from its roots. Our motive was to protect not just the content but also investigate and nab those behind all the notorious sites,” recounts Kumar of MassBunk.

Helping a neighbour whose YouTube channel was deactivated because of a copyright strike gave Girish his most successful business idea. “It got me thinking about copyright enforcement. My team of engineers and I spent more than a year devising an antipiracy tool that can extract, validate and delete 95% of copyright infringements in the online space. Our AI-enabled pattern identification technology has also helped us draw up a list of potential and habitual offenders,” says Girish.

While much of it is still about movies and shows, digital piracy in its new avatar applies to e-books and gaming as well. If social media is often used to share pirated content within closed groups or as a signpost, the leading source of pirated content today, they claim, are popular messaging apps like Telegram with its end-to-end encryption that allows pirates and users to conceal their identity and share texts, videos, or other copyrighted content.

“Ninety per cent use Telegram to download their favourite movies, shows, music, and e-books. The process starts with a channel admin posting hyperlinks to pirated content available on a third party streaming/download site. These third-party sites pay the admins according to the number of visits, downloads and streams on their site,” explains Sharath.

“And pirates make most of their money from ad revenues. Legitimate businesses, including well-known brands in search of high traffic, inadvertently place their ads on pirate websites,” says Abhishek Dhoreliya, founder and CEO of MarkScan, an antipiracy agency in Delhi.

“Simulcasting or live streaming video to multiple channels from one platform; extraction of files and capturing videos from streaming services; mobile compatible modified versions of a streaming app that one can install on their Android device are some of the new trends,” says Girish, adding that, “NFT piracy is picking up pace, too, where pirates create counterfeit NFTs and sell them to unsuspecting buyers.”

The work of these antipiracy task forces begins at least a week before a film is about to be released, monitoring websites and Telegram channels round the clock that are likely to post links to the movie once the first pirated print is leaked. “We have teams dedicated to each regional language, and the moment anyone informs us over social media, DMs or email, we remove the links in bulk,” says Sharath, who has filed nearly 50 FIRs till date. MassBunk also teams up with social media influencers, fans and citizen collectives who often alert them to illegal links during a movie’s release.

“Our teams work round the clock to monitor online discussion forums, search engines, user generated platforms like YouTube and social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook,” says Dhoreliya, who has partnered with many of these sites for access to their ‘takedown tool’ that allows them moderator privilege to remove any pirated content on their platforms.

That apart, search-engine delisting and domain blocking via Ashok Kumar order (Indian substitute for John Doe order), a legal remedy against unknown offenders, is an effective counter-measure, believes Girish, whose team recently helped keep films like ‘JugJugg Jeeyo’ (Hindi), ‘Bairagee’ (Kannada), ‘Nadi Dosh’ (Gujarati), ‘Khaao Piyo Aish Karo’ (Punjabi) from popping up on rogue websites. “Such legal orders are a crucial strategy in tackling piracy ahead of big-ticket releases,” says Dhoreliya.

While piracy in India is a criminal act that could attract a three-year prison term and a fine of up to Rs 3 lakhs, most of the perpetrators use offshore servers in foreign countries like UK and France where laws and punishments differ, say these antipiracy crusaders. “Unlike physical CD shops and sellers that were easy to identify and catch, pirates could be anywhere in the world using privacy protection services to hide on the Internet,” adds Dhoreliya, who feels that changes in the copyright laws in India to address new forms of digital piracy and collaboration between stakeholders — content owners, government entities and antipiracy agencies — could help take the bull by the horns.

Lucknow: Actor Mithilesh Chaturvedi, who played key character roles in several films and web series, including the role of lawyer Ram Jethmalani in ‘Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story’, passed away in Mumbai on Thursday. He was 67.

The Lucknow-born actor suffered a cardiac arrest 10 days ago and was under treatment at Kokilaben Hospital.

Chaturvedi worked with the UP Registrar Firms and Societies in Lucknow, but quit the job to try his luck in Bollywood in the late 1990s. Starting his career with ‘Bhai Bhai’ in 1997, he made a mark with Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Satya’. He went on to act in hits like ‘Koi Mil Gaya’, ‘Gadar: Ek Prem Katha’, ‘Krrish’ and ‘Bunty Aur Babli’. He was also associated with several theatre groups in Lucknow.

The news about his demise was broken by his son-in-law Ashish who posted a message on Facebook. Soon, condolences poured in from around the country with friends and colleagues describing his death as an “unbearable loss”.

Director Hansal Mehta, who worked with Chaturvedi in ‘Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story’, was among the first to mourn Chaturvedi. Actor Delnaaz Irani tweeted, “Sad to hear about the passing of Mithilesh Chaturvedi ji. Such an amazing actor with such great roles he portrayed. My deepest condolences to his family. ”

Writer-director Anees Bazmee said, “Really not able to take this in. Spoke to him a couple of days back and now I see this! Really sad to lose such a gem who was a delight to work and spend time with. My heart goes out to the family. May your soul rest in peace Mithilesh bhai.”

Theatre doyen and Chaturvedi’s friend Surya Kumar Kulshreshtra said, “He was always cheerful, but when it came to theatre, he was quite serious and lived the character given to him.”

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Rising from the realms of regional films to becoming a national star, Pratik Gandhi has reinforced the fact that dreams do come true sometimes. While he continues to scale new heights, the one thing that hasn’t changed in Pratik’s life, despite his tryst with Bollywood is his first love — theatre. He made a comeback to theatre recently with a performance in Ahmedabad, following it up with his directorial debut for another Gujarati play. During a recent interaction, Pratik spoke to us about why he’s so passionate about theatre and films. Excerpts:

Theatre has always been my comfort zone, a place where I feel I always belong. During the pandemic, we couldn’t do any plays and even after that, I couldn’t get back to theatre as I was busy with other projects. So, I wanted to get back to that space and see if I still have it in me (laughs). And I felt like a newcomer when I took the stage after such a long gap. I felt the butterflies in my stomach, the anxiety and the excitement were back. It made me realise why I love theatre. The moment I was on stage, everything else seemed irrelevant. It was just me and the audience. I felt I was back where I belonged.

My very next project after Scam 1992 that became a hit, was a Gujarati web series and I did that show because the story was very compelling. A lot of people told me not to do it, but I went ahead because I loved the story. This is how I’ve approached all my projects post Scam 1992. I don’t let the pressure of delivering a hit get the better of me or impact my mental well-being. Success means different things to different people. As an actor, I feel am a success when I am able to play different characters convincingly. I don’t consciously pick projects that can become successful, I tend to go by my instinct.

This is the best time for creative people and those who want to experiment in the entertainment industry. There is no tag like a ‘regional actor’ anymore. In fact, regional entertainment industries have captured the audience’s imagination and provided quality content. I feel Bollywood has missed the beat at times because most of the films that aren’t doing well commercially were made three years ago. Since then, the audience’s taste has changed so drastically that some of these Hindi films looked and felt stale. Having said that, if a film that was shot before the pandemic can look old in just two years, there is something wrong with the project in the first place.

Moving into the Bollywood circle never felt alien to me. I totally feel like I belong there. In fact, I am getting to do different stuff. Bollywood is the biggest stage any actor can dream of and I have got this wonderful chance of working with actresses like Taapsee Pannu and Vidya Balan. It has been a fantastic ride so far. Working with such powerhouse performers made me realise that they are as passionate about the craft as I am. And that puts you on the same level as them.

Be it JK in The Family Man, Lolark Dubey in Asur or Sharad Bellary in Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story — actor Sharib Hashmi is a force to reckon with in the OTT space. And it won’t be wrong to say the medium gave his career a new lease of life. The actor, who made his debut with the acclaimed 2012 film Filmistaan but hit a rocky patch post that, admits the digital revolution turned his life around.

“Though I did sign a few films after Filmistaan, somehow things didn’t work out the way I imagined. Career mein ek slump aa gaya tha, and then I got The Family Man, then Asur, followed by Scam 1992... I have now signed some big banner films like Vikram Vedha and Mission Majnu,” says the 46-year-old.

His portrayal of a spy alongside the protagonist played by actor Manoj Bajpayee in TFM, fetched him a lot of popularity, and proved that web shows provide room for every actor shines equally.

Hashmi agrees that the definition of a hero has changed. “The audience only focusses on the characters now, and not at who’s a hero or the supporting actor. If they want to watch a (conventional) hero, they turn to the big screen [for films] like Pushpa: The Rise, RRR and Sooryavanshi (2021). On OTT, they like to watch hardcore, realistic and engaging stuff,” says the actor.

Films have often been considered bigger than television and other mediums. So when the going was rough, was Hashmi advised to not work on the web, since it was comparatively new?

He replies, “No one advised me this, thankfully, and even if they did I wouldn’t have listened. But I was told ‘hero ke dost ka role kabhi mat karna, you will get typecast, sirf ussi type ke roles milenge’. But when I was offered TFM, my opinion changed. If it’s a role like my character, JK, main kud kud ke karunga, 50 baar karunga even if I get stereotyped!”

And, his discography is proof that he has been anything but typecast. From characters with shades of grey to comedy and action — he has touched upon multiple genres.

Ask him if there’s any particular genre he wants to try his hands at next, Hashmi shares he believes in prioritizing the script over the genre. “Maine aisa koi criteria nahin banaya hai. Never say never. I haven’t made any such plans. I just want a good script, director and production house — exactly in this order. And then the platform on which it will be aired,” he shares.

With such meaty parts in popular web shows coming his way, has his value as an actor increased? He shares, The medium you work on does not decide your market value. How well you negotiate, does.”

Pratik Gandhi quickly followed up the raging success of Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story by bagging interesting projects in Bollywood, including Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan? opposite Taapsee Pannu and a yet-untitled rom-com with Vidya Balan. But not many know that another Gandhi-starrer, Kahani Rubber Band Ki, is ready and eyeing a release. Debutant director Sarika Sanjot says that the actor had simultaneously shot for the film and Hansal Mehta’s web series, wrapping up the former just before the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic hit.

The social drama, which highlights the importance of using condoms, also features television actors Manish Raisinghan and Avika Gor. “Pratik plays Manish’s lawyer and friend. He was the perfect fit for the role. When Pratik hears the script, he asks questions about his character and gives inputs, but leaves the final call to the director. When you give his scene to him, he doesn’t require rehearsals. He takes only 15 minutes before the shot to become the character. He was shooting Scam 1992 at the time and knew that it would do well; despite that, he was so humble,” says Sanjot, who has also written and co-produced the movie.

While the film was initially slated to hit theatres in March 2020, the pandemic played spoilsport. Co-producer Naresh Dudani says, “We wanted to have a theatrical release, but now, we may not have a choice as everything is so unpredictable [due to the third wave].”

The makers are now contemplating an OTT premiere for the film, which will be Gandhi’s second Bollywood release after Bhavai (2021). The director adds, “We completed the post-production through the lockdown and are now looking at an OTT release.”

Hansal Mehta, who directed Pratik Gandhi in Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, says, “We (filmmakers) have always wanted to cast the right person for our shows/films, and because of OTT we now have an open field. Pratik was cast because he’s a terrific actor who also happened to be a Gujarati (like the character he played). Even The Family Man 2 used so many actors from the South film industries, which gave the narrative an edge. Sacred Games also used so many Marathi industry actors. It’s a great trend.”

Filmmakers believe that casting regional actors in OTT series basis their talent has been possible as there’s no pressure to cater to the box-office. Says Raj Nidimoru (of Raj & DK, creators of The Family Man), “Our series gave us the freedom to go beyond language. Priyamani, Samantha and Neeraj Madhav have been reintroduced to Indian audiences thanks to Hindi OTT. Films have certain restrictions in terms of box-office that OTT doesn’t, no one has to speak Hindi for the sake of it. Almost 50% of The Family Man 2 was in Tamil, but that didn’t hamper the series. Actors can express themselves the best when they get to be themselves and this will lead to people opening up to more talent from across India in the Hindi OTT space. ”

Actors from regional industries may enjoy demi-god like stature that their theatrical releases bring them, but that hasn’t stopped them from taking the Hindi OTT route. Samantha Ruth Prabhu, who debuted in the Hindi web space this year, says, “As an actress, I want to push boundaries. Raji (her character in The Family Man) allowed me to explore a new dimension and I wanted to take this risk for my growth. This decision paid off and helped me get closer to a much wider audience and opened up new avenues.”

Venturing into Hindi OTT space has earned them a new fanbase, who are watching the actor’s regional content as well. Says Parambrata Chatterjee, “Many people have told me that after having watched my Hindi web shows, they are now watching my Bengali films with subtitles. This synergy allows actors from language industries to explore the Hindi content space.”

For regional actors, the medium doesn’t matter since the work culture is almost similar. Roshan Mathew adds, “It’s heartening that casting agents are now looking at actors from various regional industries for Hindi web shows. Now that Malayalam cinema has pan-India acceptance, actors from our industry are taken seriously. Having lived in Mumbai for several years, I am comfortable with Hindi and familiar with the shooting process. When I did Anurag (Kashyap) sir’s Choked, it did not feel any different than working in a Malayalam film.”

Most regional actors believe that since the core audience has shifted loyalty to OTT, the platform has become more important. Paoli Dam (below) says, “OTT is proving to be a gamechanger for regional actors — look how things turned out for Pratik Gandhi after Scam 1992. Audiences now want content-rich work and OTT is providing that, and us actors the scope to experiment with our craft.”

Amruta Subhash feels the amalgamation of industries “has made us do some out of the box work. Collaborations are leading to challenging creative opportunities.”

The year 2022 will continue to have more regional heavyweights in the OTT space. Frontlining this trend will be Rana Daggubati set to star in a web original titled Rana Naidu alongside uncle and veteran actor Daggubati Venkatesh; Vijay Sethupathi in Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK’s next, tentatively titled show, Fake with Regina Cassandra (who also has Project Hawk and Rocket Boys in the kitty), Prithviraj Sukumaran is doing a Hindi web show directed by him, Trisha will appear in a Telugu show Brinda, to be dubbed in Hindi and Shrenu Parikh will star in Damaged 3.

Says Rana, “I was always interested in doing a web show, but didn’t know how to go about it or what story to tell. When I was offered the adaptation of Ray Donovan, I jumped at the chance. From the time I became an actor, I knew that there will be some story that Venky and I will tell together, something that’s not cliched but cool. This is going to be special.”

Regina Cassandra, who is set to mark her debut in Hindi OTT in 2022 with a slew of web shows, says, “With Hindi OTT shows, the makers have to reach out to a wider audience, so regional actors are courted by showrunners. It’s business at the end of the day. Thanks to OTT, there is no north-south divide anymore.”

— Inputs by Suhas Yellapantula, Rachana Dubey, Renuka Vyavahare, Anna Mathews, Shruti Jambhekar, Shreyanka Mazumdar and M Suganth