Mona Singh, Kunal Roy Kapur on 'Thode Door Thode Paas': Relevant show in the age of social media

Mumbai: Mona Singh and Kunal Roy Kapoor said they deeply resonated with the theme of their new show ‘Thode Door Thode Paas’, which talks about how technology has impacted inter-personal relationships. The slice-of-life drama follows the Mehta family, whose patriarch, played by Pankaj Kapur, challenges his family to undertake a six-month digital detox in exchange for a monetary reward.

“We’ve witnessed all of that (the era before social media and after that). It is 100% nostalgia. It was a yes from the word go for this show,” Singh told PTI in an interview.

Kunal Roy Kapur, who features as Singh’s husband in the show, said he felt the story to be relevant for every household, including his own. “I’ve kids, so I know what it means for them to hand over their devices. Like, there’s a time limit, especially during exams for them. Otherwise, people are constantly on their devices. It (tech) becomes a kind of co-parent to you and you don’t know what that parent is telling them. You don’t know who is giving them information about which part of the world they’re being radicalised or not. It is scary,” he said.

Asked about the relevance of social media in an actor’s life, Singh said she doesn’t succumb to the pressure to be seen constantly. “I don’t take the constant pressure of posting. My team keeps telling me to post saying, ‘Instagram is drying out’. I’m like, ‘I’m not doing anything. I’ll do it at my own leisure’. The number of likes and comments doesn’t make me personally happy; it’s not the bar to happiness. We should realise that human touch, human relationships matter the most. I don’t let social media consume me so much that I feel bad about not posting,” Singh said.

Singh and Roy Kapur also shared their experience of working with Pankaj Kapur. “We talked about the process of ‘Office, Office’ and the beauty is that they used to rehearse for the first half of the day and they’d shoot the whole episode in the second half of the day. He shared these kinds of stories; it was so fascinating for us,” Roy Kapur said.

Singh described the veteran actor as a ‘simple and high-thinking man’. “It was lovely to shoot with him. He is a simple man, simple living, high thinking,” she said.