Ruslaan Mumtaz: Stars are created on the Internet these days

Ruslaan Mumtaz

Having played a string of loverboy roles, Ruslaan Mumtaz is set to explore his dark side with Vikram Bhatt's upcoming series, Alive. The actor, who has previously enjoyed stints in movies and television, says it was the opportunity to venture into the digital space that made him greenlight the project. "Stars are created on the Internet these days. I don't want to leave any chance of making it big. Web makes it easy to reach the entire country.

I have consciously started taking up series because the stories are qualitatively better," says Mumtaz. The suspense thriller sees his character ageing from a 20-year-old to one well into his 40s. "I had to undergo prep for the mature guy act; Vikram sir wanted me to change my dialogue delivery in order to pull off the older character convincingly."

With two collaborations behind them, he was only too happy to reunite with Bhatt. "I have worked with sir in Dangerous Ishhq (2012) and a short film called Let's Play. We knew we had to do a longer series." The show sees Tia Bajpai play his love interest. Heaping praise on her, he says, "Within minutes of being introduced on the first day of the shoot, we were told, 'Next up, you guys have to shoot a lovemaking scene'. We barely knew each other, but Tia was poised and dealt with it well."

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