As actor Arjun Rampal makes his web debut with The Final Call, he tells Chahak Mittal that a digital show works only if it is being binge-watched
What happens when a pilot entrusted with the lives of hundreds of passengers is caught with anxiety in the middle of the flight and decides that ‘life is not worth it’ and chooses to end it all, taking all the passengers and crew with him?’ reads the description of author and storyteller Priya Kumar’s book, I Will Go With You: The Flight of a Lifetime.
As millions of readers turned the book into a bestseller, the story is now all set to be presented through ZEE5’s web series, The Final Call.
It hasn’t been long since the show’s trailer was launched and started trending on YouTube, leaving the audience curious about actor Arjun Rampal’s role. The protagonist is a dark character and has a hint of mystery around him which leaves one perplexed about what he is trying to do. He tells us that there are certain things that one feels fearful about sharing. “We have to maintain the surprise element, especially if it’s a psychological thriller. Even now, when I watch the trailer, I wonder whether it would have been better to exclude certain scenes to keep the mystery alive,” says the model-turned-actor.
Explaining his role, he says that the pilot he plays is suicidal and in a very “dark space” in his life as he is affected or traumatised by his past experiences. He is not trying to save anyone rather he might just crash the plane on purpose. Well, not many might know that when Tarun Katial, CEO of ZEE5, had roped in Arjun for a show, it was for another series which was a biopic. So how did he land this role?
Arjun narrates that he found the biopic script “horrible” but didn’t know how to refuse it. However, he was relieved when Tarun himself found the show unworthy, which is when they connected as quality mattered to both of them.
“Sometimes, you overlook a role or a film and think that it could be made better through editing and presenting it in a different way than it is written. But Tarun was very vigilant and hands-on about what he was doing. I found it very impressive. And that’s when he came across yet another script that was very intriguing. Priya’s book was its own kind of genre and had a uniqueness,” says he.
It’s the Rock On actor’s debut on the digital format and he feels that working on a film or a web show is equally challenging. However, “web gives a lot of space and provides freedom at all levels. It gives more time to tell the story. It’s not a two-hour tale that needs to be finished on time. It allows the filmmakers to delve into the details of each character. So it gives freedom to both the makers and the audience. It also doesn’t have ‘box-office pressure’ and helps masses to engage with it. Last, it doesn’t have the horrible censorship aspect which makes it boundless.”
The actor says that he realised that web also lets one grow as he has to work on his character each day. “On big screen, the challenge is that the film doesn’t flop. Here, the target is that people don’t just shut the show in the middle of an episode. Their curiosity level should be maintained till the end to keep it working,” he says. The actor feels that if a show is being binge-watched and not flipped on to some other series, it is definitely successful.
When a book is adapted into a show or a film, it does get ‘lost in translation’ sometimes as its intricacies might get compromised while visualising and acting it out especially since everything cannot be included.
To the contrary, Priya says that she edited the script and made a lot of changes which she thought she could have added in the actual book as well. For her, “the important point was to keep the message intact. As long as that happened, I was fine with changes in the script. Filmmakers feel that an author can’t be a screenplay writer if his/her book is being adapted because he/she is very attached to the work. Sometimes the same kind of idea might not work for a visual show.”
However, she wanted to give it a chance and hence, even after she changed multiple things, the director changed it further. “It seemed to have been touched by a magic wand as it did turn out to be really wonderful and the way I had imagined. Rather, it has only enhanced the message my book tries to give,” says Priya.
As the trailer also hinted at something that could be an act of terrorism, Arjun and Priya talk about its scourge and India being at its receiving end. Arjun says, “It’s very unfortunate what happened in Pulwama. I was recently shooting for the show in Kashmir and felt very peaceful. Even the native people feel that but the place has become a target of media’s exaggeration and violence. They feel that they are just targets of state politics. A feeling of inclusiveness should be extended towards the people of this state just like to those in any other part of the country. There is some fear in them that also doesn’t let their businesses to flourish and the state tourism to thrive.”
But if we give out a message of peace and work for their safety, both state tourism and businesses will work out since people would also not be afraid to visit Kashmir. “Such cowardly acts,” he says, “is just alienating the state from the nation. It is a beautiful place and should remain the same rather than turning into a blood zone.”
(The show airs on ZEE5 from February 22.)
Photo: Pankaj Kumar
