Arjun Mathur and Gagan Arora’s Amazon MiniTV film ‘Don’t Drink And Drive’ tells a story about a privileged brat who learns an expensive lesson about drinking and driving. Director Jai Sharma has beautifully used humour to convey a provocative message (which everyone understands but sometimes ignores) in this comedy film.
In this conversation, Arjun Mathur and Gagan Arora talk about their character, and their journey in the OTT space.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q. Would you like to talk about your character and how much you relate with them?
Gagan Arora: I am playing a rich spoilt brat and I couldn’t connect with the character but I have seen a lot of these youngsters around me because I was born and brought up in Delhi. I took reference from those characters and more and less it was very well communicated by our director.
Arjun Mathur: I play the part of a hitchhiker in this film and the character itself is not something I related to at all. He is just supposed to come across a bit spooky, kind of mysterious enigma that you don’t want to put your figure on so that’s something we achieved with jay vision. It's not me at all.
Q. Don't drink and drive is sending a social message so how important do you think are such messages to be conveyed through the medium of entertainment
Arjun Mathur: I kind of very early in my career started doing socially relevant films. The first two short films I did were with Mira Nair and Farhan Akhtar simultaneously, through their respective short films, 'Migration' and 'Positive' for the 'Aids Jaago' project. I believe that cinema is the most powerful medium that helps in thinking on a universal stage and the world needs some kind of change otherwise we are doomed. I do believe that where we are right now in the history of the world, it is a little irresponsible to just focus on doing empty things. I think we have to say something through our work
Gagan Arora: Our craft is a beautiful way to reach a larger audience because usually it becomes too preachy and people kind of shut themselves off while they are watching it. What happened with our film is that while you are getting entertained, it somehow envelops the whole situation into the film in such a way that at no point anybody says that don’t drink and drive, it just reaches out. I think it is one of the major motivations for a director because you have to say something.
Q. Would you like to talk about ott journey so far and how much your career has seen a boom after its evolution
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Gagan Arora: I think my whole journey has been on OTT. I have done films and commercials but I can actually say that I was born on OTT as an actor and I owe my career to this space because it brought a lot of opportunities. I don’t think if I wanted to be an actor around 20 years back, I would have gotten this amount of success as I have right now. I have worked with Arjun, Amitabh Bachchan, and Madhuri Dixit s because of OTT right now. Most of it is because it has lots of opportunities and people are not looking at numbers. I am not getting work based on that, I am getting it because of abilities and if I suit the character so I think that’s a very beautiful change that has come across so I think it's a beautiful time to be an actor.
Arjun Mathur: For me, I think well this OTT so to speak is only 5 years old with 'Made in Heaven' for me and since then quite a bit but I think, generally speaking, I started drifting myself towards more independent work very early in my career and that time there was streaming work but that’s the work I continued to do. It didn’t have too much of an audience so I think I have naturally gravitated towards what is so-called more suited for ott. So I think it was more like a platform existed for the work I was already doing and the platform existed now for that work to be seen. I am very thankful and we are in a great place right now. I am not someone who is affected by what mainstream Bollywood career is going through because, to be honest, it never affected my career. I am personally quite glad about everything that exists right now. There is a lot of work, there is a lot of talent that’s been on the sidelines for a very long time whether they are creators, directors, or actors so I think it's a good time.
Q. What next
Arjun Mathur: There is 'Made In Heaven' season 2 and then there is Lord Curzon Ki Haveli, directed by Anshuman Jha. With Rasika Dugal, Zoha Rahman, Arjun Mathur, Paresh Pahuja, the film was shot in just 15 days.
Gagan Arora: There is 'Tumbbad', College Romance with a fourth season, and there is another film horror comedy.
