You mentioned somewhere that film festivals are simply a feather to the project’s cap and not the cap itself. However, do you think they add the much needed gravitas to your project?
Yes, they do add a lot of gravitas. However, when we make a series or movie, we predominantly make it for the audience, our personal creativity and aesthetics aside. A pat on the back or critical acclaim is extremely important too, where good work is chosen and presented to a larger audience. However, ultimately, there is no point of critical acclaim if the audience does not like your work.
Not many know that you have in fact, experimented with a limited series format earlier with 24?
Yes, of course, so while we were making 24 in early 2012, there was no OTT, but the whole point was to make something that would change the way people viewed television. It was more like a feature film experience on TV and now with Brown, we have dug our roots deeper into the content watching psyche.
Coming to Brown, it is a neo-crime thriller, a genre that has been attracting a lot of traction on OTT… And it stars Karisma Kapoor in the eponymous role, that of a a suicidal alcoholic detective. Take us a bit through the project..
On the surface if it, while Brown is a thriller and a murder mystery, we are still trying to wrap it up with a human element. Personally, I have tried to push the envelope from the point of view of how many layers you can create for an audience to kind of take home and think about. And I am talking not just in terms of the technical aspect, even treatment wise, story telling and character development – everything about Brown is going to be different as per the viewing trends, that our audience is used to.
When it comes to the OTT space, do you think it is difficult to hold the audience interest, with so many platforms available vis-à-vis say watching a movie in the theatre?
Certainly, because apart from the difference between a feature film and an OTT platform, the viewing world has changed too. See, when you watch a movie in the theatre, you not only make the effort to buy a ticket, you also have to visit the theatre, maybe drive down, buy some popcorn etc. So, you invest a lot and will invariably sit through the entire experience. However, on OTT, it has become so competitive, that if I can’t grab the interest of the audience in the first ten minutes of the pilot episode, then I am doomed. As content creators, we must try and stay one step ahead of the audience all the time, because they have become extremely intelligent.
Do you think due to OTT, the amount of genres that one can experiment with are widespread now?
Absolutely, because we have finally broken the shackles of stereotypical stuff. Personally, I think this is one of the best times for us to experiment and throw away this concept of being ‘safe’. Honestly now, with the amount of content available for all of us, what we want, or what the audience wants has changed dramatically, so we need to keep pace.
Finally, when can we see Brown stream on OTT?
We are in our final leg of post production and while I can’t put a date to it, it should be out soon.
