From Bobby to Manisha Koirala, Sushmita to Sanjay Kapoor, it’s second innings for a host of nineties stars
Sonam Joshi (THE TIMES OF INDIA; September 6, 2020)

Whatever happened to Chandrachur Singh? That was pretty much the question on the minds of those who remembered his performance in the Gulzar-directed Maachis in 1996. The role got him a Filmfare award, and plenty of critical acclaim but not too much else. Cut to 2020, the 54-year-old, who had been quietly raising his son as a single parent in Dehradun, returned to the public eye with family crime drama Aarya, which also brought back Jayant Kripalani and Sushmita Sen after a hiatus.

“My priorities were clear — I needed to be a parent. Also, I wasn’t getting the kind of offers I was hoping to get but the role Ram Madhvani offered resonated with me because Tej (who he plays) loves music and is a family man like me,” says Singh.

In the last few years, many actors who began their careers on the big screen in the 1990s and then faded away are now returning to the small screen in newer avatars through streaming platforms. There’s Sanjay Kapoor playing a father in Coronavirus lockdown thriller The Gone Game, Karisma Kapoor as a mother in Mentalhood, Bobby Deol as a godman in Aashram and police officer in Class Of '83 and Manisha Koirala as a Irani cafe owner in Maska, among others.

Casting director Abhimanyu Ray, who worked on Aarya and Class of '83 after himself taking a decade-long break from the movie industry, says Bollywood has often been judgmental towards actors perceived to be carrying baggage. “Filmmakers are afraid of taking chances and often actors are cast by what they’ve been seen in,” he says. “The downside is you get tired of seeing the same face portray the same characters again and again.” Talking about the positive response to Aarya, he adds, “These people have existed; it isn’t as if they were pulled out of a Pandora’s box, but the question is why have such good actors been forgotten?”

Ray also attributes this to mainstream actors’ aversion to web series until recently. “Many would think it would be a step down for them,” he says. “So one had to dig deeper and find actors who are talented but haven’t been around for a while.”

Actors are also willing to play their age now, and open to sharing the screen with other actors rather than hankering for the central role, says Karishma Kohli, who directed Karisma Kapoor along with an ensemble cast of Dino Morea, Shruti Seth and Sandhya Mridul in Mentalhood. “I was in awe of Lolo and stood with my jaw open on the first day of the shoot,” she recalls. Mentalhood’s casting director Aadore Mukherjee, who recently cast Bhagyashree and Sharon Prabhakar in a film and series respectively, credits “better content and good scriptwriters for bringing back actors to our screens”.

For viewers, seeing these familiar faces in a new avatar often invokes curiosity and nostalgia. Casting director Seher Latif, who picked Koirala for Maska, says the web offers freedom from box office pressure, thus opening up opportunities. About Koirala, he says, “We felt it would be a nice meaty role we’ve never seen her in before, and she also relished the challenge of working on the Parsi diction.”

Actor Sanjay Kapoor, who essayed the role of a father to a grown-up son in the series The Gone Game, says web series allow for more character development by virtue of their length. “The digital medium has given a platform to many actors who couldn’t make a mark in films, including me — I’m getting this kind of recognition after 25 years.”

Kapoor, who had shifted from acting to production due to lack of good roles, already has two other web shows on the cards. “The opportunities have definitely increased and I can do a greater variety of roles than a decade ago. Every character gets their due because of the longer format,” he says.

The fact that actors like Sushmita Sen and Lara Dutta can play leads in their 40s, something unheard of in mainstream films, also indicates a lesser degree of ageism and gender bias on OTT platforms. “When I narrated the script of Hundred to Lara, she said she’d never thought she’d be getting such a meaty role at this age,” says showrunner, creator and co-director Ruchi Narain. She points out that it is also difficult to tell the stories of strong older women in films “where everything other than a story of a young hero is considered fringe”.

Madhvani, who had worked with Sen on a commercial, says he approached her because she embodied the qualities of Aarya: “A woman who is confident, strong-willed, graceful, poised, someone who loves her family and children and would do anything to keep them safe”. He feels that for the audience to be invested in the characters and the relationships, the correct casting is of prime importance. “Tej’s character needed to be someone who was charming, innocent and lovable; Chandrachur had all these qualities along with a certain purity.”

Veteran actor Jayant Kripalani, 70, who plays Sen’s father, says it was the opportunity to play an underworld drug don that drew him to the role. “Web series are definitely a lot more adventurous and take risks with stories,” says Kripalani, who has been working on Bengali OTT shows in the last couple of years. “They fall somewhere between theatre and TV, giving an actor scope to do things they couldn’t do in front of a camera but could in front of a live audience.”

However, Ray adds that it is important that filmmakers keep thinking in imaginative ways. “It shouldn’t be the case that the actors who are now getting popular are used again and again,” he says. 

Loved-up couple under quarantine, actor Shweta Tripathi and singer SlowCheeta, talk about their new ready-to-devour projects
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; August 30, 2020)

Shweta Tripathi and SlowCheeta, aka Chaitnya Sharma, realised early in the Coronavirus lockdown that social media trends weren't to be followed. "I tried to make the fancy coffee everybody was making online, and Chaitnya got sick after having it. So, we decided not to try anything trendy, just keep ourselves happy," the actor tells us over the phone.

Well, it would make sense, as the couple has enough to keep themselves busy. SlowCheeta has just released his three-track rap EP, and Tripathi will be back with Mirzapur's season 2, which is set to release in October. Before that, sci-fi movie Cargo releases on September 9. "We even shot all of the Voot series The Gone Game, in the house! I shot Shweta, and we were working all day long. So, it's been a productive time," says SlowCheeta, as Tripathi adds, "It was very different, as we are very vocal about each other's work, and when he said, he liked a scene, I was over the moon. The highlight of this phase has been spending time with my husband. Otherwise, when I return from a shoot, he's usually leaving for one."

SlowCheeta's EP presents the view of an upper middle-class man dealing with his set of problems. In a world where we are accustomed to recognizing rap as a "gully" sound, his take is refreshing. The melodies are catchy, his voice ear candy, and the lyrics speak of challenges he faced when growing up. "The three songs are about asking the listener to come share my journey. Rap has risen from the streets, but street or skyscraper, we all have our problems."

Tripathi, on the other hand, is the unsuspecting cutie on screen who can handle intense roles with ease. Most recently, she was the most palatable character on Netflix dud Raat Akeli Hai. But what viewers are looking forward to is Cargo, which director Arati Kadav had described to this writer in an interview in March as "a movie about life on Pushpak 634A, where a demon works for the Post Death Transition services, and with the help of a female astronaut, gets dead people ready to be recycled for rebirth". "Everything Arati does is not of this world, and that itself is exciting. I also love working with first-time directors, who bring great energy on set. Every little detail is looked into. We are competing with shows from all over the world. If you don't like it, switch it off. The audience has a lot of say now about what content works."

While work has slowly begun to take everyone out of home, the couple wishes they can spend more time with each other.

SlowCheeta says, "We are hopeless romantics. And we have so much to talk about all the time. The spectrum of conversation can get strangely widespread. A simple, 'how was your day?' question can set off an interesting chat. We love that."

Getting a taste of the new normal, Sanjay Kapoor on shooting The Gone Game remotely amid the Coronavirus lockdown
Uma Ramasubramanian (MID-DAY; August 25, 2020)

Sanjay Kapoor is surprised at how director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat has pulled off the shoot of The Gone Game without setting foot outside his house. Impressed as he was by the script, the actor admits he was thoroughly intrigued when the director mentioned that the series would be shot remotely due to the current Coronavirus scenario. "As an actor, it was a challenging experience. Here, I have not met any of my co-actors, which has never happened before. We only met over Zoom calls," marvels Kapoor, who features alongside Arjun Mathur and Shweta Tripathi Sharma in the Voot Select thriller."

The at-home shoot was a refreshing change of pace for the actor who has become habituated to reporting to the set and filming his sequences without having to worry about their technical aspects. "We had to do everything on our own — from placing the camera to brightening the lights. I had to deliver my lines without having a co-star to react to them." Kapoor reveals that after filming each scene, he would send the take to Bhat who would, in turn, offer suggestions.

Touted as India's first web series about COVID-19, The Gone Game explores deviant behaviour during crisis
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; July 20, 2020)

Voot's upcoming offering The Gone Game explores how the spread of the Coronavirus, besides its health ramifications, has taken an emotional toll on us. Featuring Sanjay Kapoor, Shweta Tripathi Sharma and Arjun Mathur among others, the thriller — touted as India's first web series about a pandemic — focuses on a family that has lost a loved one to the virus.

Producer Sukesh Motwani credits director Nikhil Nagesh Bhat for having deftly woven a psychological thriller against the backdrop of the crisis. "During our brainstorming sessions, we felt that the story of a family, with all its fault lines and emotions, can be explored. What happens when different members of a family are stuck in different locations because of the lockdown, only to know that one of them has succumbed to COVID? The idea is to explore the possibilities of deviant human behaviour, crime and morality during such times," states Motwani.

The series was remotely shot over a month, with every actor doubling up as the director of photography. "We would co-ordinate over video calls, giving instructions to each actor regarding the lighting and the treatment of each scene. It was a new and elaborate way of executing a show."