Exclusive! Producer Gaurav Verma says it was a challenge to convince people to cast Bobby Deol in Class of '83

Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment has produced several shows and films that have made their way to OTT platforms. Each piece of content by the production studio has been unique, be it the latest release, Love Hostel (ZEE5) or Class of 83 (Netflix), Bob Biswas (ZEE5) and Betaal (Netflix). 

It was in Class of 83 that Bobby Deol made his digital debut, but casting him was not easy, shares producer and COO Gaurav Verma in an exclusive interview with OTTplay. 

Verma also speaks about Red Chillies' second collaboration with Deol in Love Hostel, creating a spin-off on the cold-blooded killer Bob Biswas from Kahaani, and the OTT boom in India. OTTplay also took this opportunity to discuss Darlings, starring Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah, Vijay Varma and Roshan Mathew; and recently wrapped Bhakshak, featuring Bhumi Pednekar. 

Edited excerpts below:

Love Hostel was released recently on ZEE5. How have you been soaking in response? Did you expect this kind of response when you were conceptualising it or shooting for the film?

We are overwhelmed. It's just amazing. We're lucky to be at this end of receiving such great reviews and reactions.

This is your second collaboration with Bobby Deol after Class of 83. Why did you choose him to play Dagar in Love Hostel?

Unfortunately, in our business, we judge people by the body of what they have done, not their potential. Bobby is an actor who's willing to surrender himself to the director. The kind of commitment he has to work is amazing. We realised that there is a guy who has so much potential but has never been given the opportunities. Bobby is someone who is willing to experiment and take on challenges, which is not easy. [As Dagar] Bobby built the character fabulously. He took up the challenge. He grew the beard for the character. You see all the greys, they are natural. He was willing to do everything, whatever it takes to become Dagar. 

You mentioned it was difficult to convince people to cast him. Why was that?

What I said was that based on the body of work of an actor, it can get difficult for people to reflect upon the potential an actor has. But now after these films, it shows that he's got a lot of potential. He played a middle-aged man in Class of 83, who is helpless but still a man of resolve. Then he has delivered as this ruthless mercenary in Love Hostel. He just played these two parts fabulously. 

I feel in India usually, you do not see a lot of spin-offs being made. It was quite a brave attempt to think of a spin-off to Kahaani with Bob Biswas's epic character. So how did that idea come about?

Every film has fabulous characters and people love them, Like, in Love Hostel, there's Dagar. They [these characters] stay in public memory for a longer period. And sometimes in today's world, you want to take those chances [with conceptualising a spin-off]. So, Sujoy was convinced about it. He wrote 30 pages of the script and wanted to make a Bengali film about Bob Biswas. But when we read those pages, I felt it should be made in Hindi, and convinced him to do it in Hindi. He went to London, where he is based, and wrote the script in 10 days. We have seen spin-offs like Better Call Saul of Breaking Bad and Hobbs & Shaw from the Fast and Furious franchise. Today, there are spin-offs of Harry Potter and Game of Thrones too. I'm not comparing us to them. I am just saying that the derivatives, characters, stories and the like, will now be adapted for spin-offs.

But unfortunately, Bob Biswas did not get the response that everyone was expecting, despite it being an iconic character and from a hit movie like Kahaani. What do you think did not work for the film?

I think it worked for us. I'm surprised to hear that question. But happy to discuss this in detail. 

I believe many people were expecting Saswata Chatterjee to play the role again since they were used to seeing him play it in Kahaani.

Sujoy had spoken about this earlier. He always wanted Abhishek Bachchan to play the role, even when he had written the character for Kahaani. Sujoy had reached out to him but he was busy shooting for Happy New Year. He then reached out to Saswata, who then played the iconic character. When you have to make a film for a wide audience, creators do make such decisions. And whatever works for the director, we back that.

So, do you think that has kind of affected or impacted the viewing experience of the audience?

No, it doesn't. Let's talk about Judwa and Judwa 2. They are equally successful. There are many other remakes too. Tamil films are being remade in Hindi and Hindi films are remade in Tamil. They do not create any limitations. As long as you make an engaging or interesting version, people will watch it. Sometimes, some people might have a difference of opinion about the cast. But as creators, we take up those challenges and move forward with our beliefs.

There are many OTT platforms coming up in regional languages as well. There's no language barrier anymore. With so many platforms coming up, there is lot of content also being offered to the audience. Do you see this as a strength or a challenge?

Strength. This is a great thing to happen. I think more people consuming content is the best thing that can happen to the entertainment business as a whole. It's a great thing. 

But then, many people feel overwhelmed with the wide slate of content coming up on OTT. Earlier when OTT platforms were fairly new, we have had such great content, like you mentioned, Sacred Games and shows like Class of 83 by Red Chillies as well. Going forward, do you think the demand for quantity will somehow affect the quality of content? How do you look at it and plan to probably overcome that?

I see a reverse of what you're saying. More content means more competition and more competition means people being more aware. It leads to awareness that the content that they are creating is not only competing with one film on a Friday but it's competing with the world. They will compete with a Spanish or English or a French show. So people will be more conscious and aware to create characters and stories that are interesting. It would lead to more innovation, which is a boon.

There are lots of discussions happening about censoring OTT content as well. What do you have to say about that?

I would not like to comment on it at the moment. 

When it's a theatrical release, it is all about the Friday or the opening weekend. With an OTT release, do you think the pressure of box office collection is off the table?

No, not at all. In fact, it's much more. When you don't collect with theatrical release, there's a chance that you can do well with television and streaming services. You still have multiple revenue streams. But when you drop your film on a streaming platform, if people don't like it, there is no second try. That's the risk.

Any updates on Darlings and Bhakshak? Are the shootings for the two complete? When can we expect the releases?

We have a couple of days of shooting for Darlings left. And shooting for Bhakshak is completed, it's on the post-production stage now. In a couple of days, you should hear a release date for both titles.

Can we expect the release by the end of this year?

You can expect a release date to be announced by the end of the year. But since there are so many films coming out, we need to look at when and how they can be released so that they have a fair chance to survive.