Vihaan Samat, who is returning to the OTT platform with a cyber thriller CTRL, spoke about his equation with co-star Ananya Panday and working with director Vikramaditya Motwane.
The actor, who is being loved for his role of Agastya from the hit series 'Call Me Bae', spoke exclusively with Money Control and revealed the real reason for doing CTRL.
Vihaan also spoke highly of his co-star and actress Ananya Panday. He revealed that she 'makes the effort to be friends with you so that you can be a professional on set.'
"She's (Ananya) very fun to be around, and she keeps it light, plus she is laser focused in her work, and then she likes to keep it light. She has a tribe and has her friends. She's a very good actor—fun, very friendly. She makes the effort to be friends with you so that you can be a professional on set. You do that so that you can just do your job on set," he told us in the interview.
Though Call Me Bae was released before CTRL, the actor revealed the two shots for CTRL first and then Call Me...
Not many know that Vihaan and Ananya went to the same school in Mumbai. He revealed that she was his junior.
"I shot CTRL first with her, and then we shot Call Me Bae. It was nice because we got to do a whole film together. And then call me Bae. That was, there was a larger cast, and we had fewer days together. It was very over a long time. So one day, then one week gap, one day, then one week gap. It was a bit disjointed that way. So I'm glad we had that inbuilt connection," he said.
When asked what pulled him to the role of Joe Mascarenha in CTRL, Vihaan said it was director Vikramaditya Motwane. He had always wanted to work with him and was happy to audition and then finally bag the role.
Vihaan said earlier his role with Joe was very small, but then it got extended, and he loved working with the director.
For me, it was very simple: Vikramaditya Motwane is making a film; it doesn't matter what he's making. If he sees me, I will work because I want to work with him. I got an audition request. I gave the audition my all. I was on set and I took out time and I, like, prepared it properly, and I did it over Zoom. It's really funny because the audition was over Zoom for a show that is completely taking place over technologies. I gave the audition for an hour or something. We kept doing it. And thankfully, he liked it.
I learned more about the character once I met Vikram. Once I was once, I knew I'm doing the film. Then I read the script, and I was like, Oh my god. This is what you're making. He wants to make something really big out there. It was very challenging and nerve-racking. And I was like, I'm in. When I read this script, my role was smaller; maybe it was really half of what it is. And then he changed the script and tweaked it, and we did workshops, and he wanted to increase certain things, thankfully. I was happy that he saw me as his lead; I was in from the start, and I was very happy. And I was happy that we've had it come out this way. I've seen the film. It's fantastic. I'm happy that this film is coming out in a couple of days. People are seeing it," he added.
MoneyControl's review reads: It is a gripping black mirror-esque cyber thriller that exposes the dark side of all things digital.
CTRL is running on Netflix, and it has opened to good reviews.
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