It’s always a tricky thing, managing to produce a movie or a series on OTT platforms, that not only receives rave reviews from the critics but also has that popular element, which entertains the masses.
“I think it’s important to strike the right balance between critical acclaim and mass acceptance. Mass acceptance will always be number one, obviously. But positive reviews from critics, since they know and understand the craft that much more, obviously feels great. So that is always something that really works for everyone. It’s the most gratifying thing. Like for example with ‘Dangal’, I think we achieved that right balance,” says Siddharth Roy Kapur.
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He was one of the producers of ‘Aranyak’, Netflix's recently released web series, starring Raveena Tandon, Parambrata Chatterjee and Ashutosh Rana, is one such recent example, where the eight-episode long series was appreciated by the masses and was given a thumbs up by the majority of critics from across the nation.
“You always hope for the kind of reaction. Every creator gets happy when they get the sort of reaction they hope for. It’s so gratifying when it happens. It feels great that ‘Aranyak’ too, got appreciation from a complete cross-section of society,” he says.
“Nothing can be more encouraging. We are doing it to entertain and engage. When you get that response it’s a huge motivator. Of course, if you go wrong, you look at the reasons are and try and reflect, but I much learn rather this way than the other way around,” he laughs.
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‘Aranyak’s success also bodes well for the OTT platform, and the series also further validates the growing trend of makers wanting to tell stories from smaller towns, since they are resonating more with the audiences.
“I think it’s always exciting for an audience, to you go into a particular environment, which is not exposed very often. You show stories of people who are living that life in that milieu, that set up and that has the smell of authenticity for them, it gets exciting, because they are stories, which were never explored before. Like, people have seen a lot of stories based in Bombay and Delhi. But, like in ‘Aranyak’s case, to go to a hill station to talk about lives of people there, a female cop, who is constantly juggling, between her daily chores at home and a hard-a** cop,” he says
“The writer went to a hill station. He came across a female cop, who was bonding with his wife over you know a lot of feminine things. But then, when she was with a suspect, altogether a different person, and that’s where the idea came from,” adds Kapoor.
Recently in an interview, Kapoor confirmed a second season.
“You can expect a season two and that’s something the team is working on very hard. With the love the show has received from the audience, we have a lot to live up to and we hope season two matches up to the first one. The characters of Kasturi Dogra and Angad will take forward things from here. There will be Mahadev (Ashutosh Rana) as well. These three characters are the fulcrum of the show. The end of season one gave a hint to it. However, we can’t talk much about part two,” he said.
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(With Inputs From PTI)
