The New Adventure

A lot of actors have entered the digital space in the last couple of years. Was it an organic process or a deliberate decision for you?

Arjun Rampal (AR): It happened organically, but yes, I was very interested in this space. I just feel that there are a lot of stories that you can tell here that you cannot make films out of. It might be because they are lengthy or there is too much to say or you don't have that kind of freedom. Here, in the digital world, you do have that, so it is a very exciting path to walk on.

As actors, we keep saying that we want to reinvent ourselves, we want to do something new, but we end up going and doing the same thing in every film. We fool ourselves that we are growing.

Sometimes you feel that you are. But when you can actually push the envelope, which this platform allows you to do, it is very cool. It teaches you a lot and you can take a lot away from it.

A lot of actors say they don't see any difference between working on a film and on a long-format show. What are your thoughts?

AR: Yes, the biggest difference is the format because the craft is the same. Your process and approach are the same. But you get more time with the character, because there is lot more material to work with. You get more time to work on it and you shoot a lot more in the web space, in the same amount of time you would take to shoot a film. It is very hectic and tiring. Your prep has to be very solid before you get to the set to shoot. You have to go there really well-prepared.

What was the prep that you had to do for this role?

AR: The first thing you need to do is experience what it is to fly. I did a lot of simulation where I went to classes, flew the simulator aircraft, took off, landed, turned planes around, learnt which buttons were for what, how to move the throttle, learnt about radar, altitude, the different codes that you can use and much more.

And Jaaved? We don't get much information about your character in the trailer.

Jaaved Jaaferi (JJ): My character is a billionaire and he has kind of been there, done that, seen everything. He is fed up of everything around him. His family life isn't exactly going right either, so he has nothing much to look forward to. He has all the money in the world but his relationships are not working and there is an emptiness in him that he wants to fill. He is looking for something but he doesn't know what it is. And in that journey, there was something that happened with him when he was a child. He has only one kind of connection with a spiritual entity which is probably based on luck or something. And he keeps this connect until destiny takes him on this particular flight where there are things happening with the other characters.

How the lives of the people on that plane intertwine in that moment and how he in the last few hours of his life understands so much more and achieves what he was looking for, through another person who is there with him, shows how destiny brings people together to make sure that things happen as they are supposed to.

Arjun, from what we saw in the trailer, your character is suffering from a trauma which makes him a little dark, a little flawed. How did you mentally prepare for the part?

AR: There is a process that you have to use when you play disturbed characters. It's not like you can just walk on to the set and say, let's do this. (Laughs) You think like them and that comes from discussing a lot with your director, which Vijay (Lalwani) and I did. It also came from reading about depressed people. I read a lot about what causes depression, why it happens, how it is sometimes a chemical imbalance, a void that one feels. More and more people these days are facing depression as a result of social media. You think you are with the world, you think you are around other people, but you are isolated.

Within the youth, depression and suicide numbers have gone up instead of down. Why is that happening? It is happening because we are isolating ourselves. We are a social species. We need to be with other people; we need to be part of a pack. It's not just social, it's your family, your religion, these are all groups where you can go and interact on a human level, in a way you cannot through a mobile phone. You see all of that and you decide how much to draw from what and put inside you and go forward.

The web space was considered liberating partly because of the absence of censorship. Now there is talk of censorship on the web. As an actor, what is your take?

JJ: In television, censorship works by saying that you cannot show certain things in certain time slots. But who controls how and when someone watches TV? There is a regulatory process when a film is in theatres because you can check ID. But in television there is no such thing. And if it is not there, the web is surely impossible. Can you stop a kid from just opening a phone and watching something on the internet? No. That is the nature of the web. Everything is available online; there is pornography, the dark web and unlimited access. The censor should be within you.

Jaaved, you are known for your talent in the comedy genre. But with the horror film Lupt last year and now this mysterious character in The Final Call, you seem to be venturing into a lot of new spaces.

JJ: My first film was Meri Jung, where I played a negative character. Then I played leads in films and did many roles in films like Jawani Zindabad and Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India, with stars like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan. I danced too and you can say that the kind of dance we are seeing today in this industry, I was a contributor to it since my time. I did other films, like Jajantaram Mamantaram, a children's film where I was the lead. Then went on to do characters in movies such as Salaam Namaste, Besharam, Bang Bang! In some of these films I have played negative characters too. I had also done serious roles in films like Deepa Mehta's Fire in 1996.

But now suddenly, for the past few years, you have a lot to play with. Even if you like biryani, you cannot eat it every day. So it is as an actor. You love something but you cannot do it every day. I love comedy and people in the country love comedy. The audience is dealing with so much every day, the reality, the in-your-face harshness, that they just want to come out and have a good laugh. And people are producing content accordingly.