'We are heading towards a world where good stories will thrive'

Gulshan Devaiah

Netizens started their year with Netflix's much-anticipated Ghost Stories, and it was Gulshan Devaiah who stole the show in an otherwise underwhelming anthology. After dipping his toes in the waters of digital entertainment with the Dibakar Banerjee-directed dystopian short, the actor has now dived headlong into it with Amazon Prime's recently released Afsos.

What took him so long to explore the booming medium? "I thought of the OTT universe as Godzilla, and movies as King Kong, [and in my head], they were in a state of war. But now, I believe we are heading towards a world where good stories will thrive," he says, counting the black comedy - that revolves around his character who pays a hitman for his own death after several failed suicide attempts - as one of them. "Anirban [Dasgupta, creator], Dibya [Chatterjee, creator] and Sourav [Ghosh, writer] kept working on the material till it was perfect. Usually, we don't see writers staying on set for the entire shoot, but they would be there till the end. The story bloomed because of them."

Eager to be part of quirky stories, Devaiah argues the popular misconception that he works out of Bengaluru reduces the amount of work that comes his way. "I have been living in Mumbai since 2008. I don't know why this idea persists. I agree my output is staggered. I take time to give my nod to projects. I am striving to strike the balance between creativity and money. I haven't reached a point where I have to do a show or movie because I am broke."

Next up, the actor has Reema Kagti's web series, Fallen, that also features Sonakshi Sinha and Vijay Varma. "It's a crime thriller about a bunch of cops from Rajasthan. It has been my childhood fantasy to play a cop."

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