Mohar Basu mohar. basu@ mid- day. com Netizens started their year with Netflixu2019s much anticipated Ghost Stories, and it was Gulshan Devaiah who stole the show in an otherwise underwhelming anthology. After dipping his toes in the waters of digital entertainment with the Dibakar Banerjee- directed dystopian short, the actor has now dived headlong into it with Amazon Primeu2019s recently released Afsos.
What took him so long to explore the booming medium? u201c I thought of the OTT universe as Godzilla, and movies as King Kong, [ and in my head], they were in a state of war. But now, I believe we are heading towards a world where good stories will thrive,u201d he says, counting the black comedy u2014 that revolves around his character who pays a hitman for his own death after several failed suicide attempts u2014 as one of them. u201c Anirban [ Dasgupta, creator], Dibya [ Chatterjee, creator] and Sourav [ Ghosh, writer] kept working on the material till it was perfect. Usually, we donu2019t see writers staying on set for the entire shoot, but they would be there till the end. The story bloomed because of them.u201d Eager to be part of quirky stories, Devaiah argues the popular misconception that he works out of Bengaluru reduces the amount of work that comes his way. u201c I have been living in Mumbai since 2008. I donu2019t know why this idea persists. I agree my output is staggered. I take time to give my nod to projects. I am striving to strike the balance between creativity and money. I havenu2019t reached a point where I have to do a show or movie because I am broke.u201d Next up, the actor has Reema Kagtiu2019s web series, Fallen, that also features Sonakshi Sinha and Vijay Varma. u201c Itu2019s a crime thriller about a bunch of cops from Rajasthan. It has been my childhood fantasy to play a cop.u201d Exploring the web, one story at a time Initially sceptical of digital entertainment, Gulshan Devaiah on adapting to the medium with Afsos and the upcoming Sonakshi Sinha- starrer, Fallen
