Arjun Mathur: Thinking narrow with our content

Arjun Mathur is one of the many examples of a true OTT find After a string of supporting roles in movies the actor got his due with Made in Heaven even earning an Emmy nomination along the way Proud to be part of the OTT boom Mathur hopes that Indian digital entertainment can keep pace with international content instead of going down the rathole of appealing to the masses As he headlines Lionsgate Playrsquos Jugaadistan the actor discusses the changing face of contentEdited excerpts from the interviewHow do you reflect on the word lsquojugaadrsquoThe show used to be called Youth Special initially Along the way the title changed to Jugaadistan The title also seems like a jugaad laughs Everyone has a jugaad these days In Mumbai it is almost the basis of life I loved the old title so did everybody else But it was changed and that taught me that at the end of the day one has no control over these thingsYou have been part of an ensemble cast before with Made in Heaven How different is it from a solohero projectI thoroughly enjoy being part of an ensemble cast Jugaadistan not only had some talented actors on board but it also had GenZ actors For the first time in my career I felt like a veteran actor Itrsquos energising to be around new blood Theyrsquove grown up with more modern sensibilities than us Concepts like sololead projects are a thing of the past To tell a story with real human emotions you need many charactersDo you feel the OTT boom has changed the idea of solohero projectsIt is trying to change that outlook A project is accomplished with the help of so many people beyond actors mdash DoP sound capturer writers Actors are merely the vehicle to put the story forward A lot more credit should be given to the technical crew and the supporting actorsWith the OTT boom do you think people are jumping on the bandwagon without exploring the true potential of streaming platformsAs long as the OTT world is not run by simple economics there is opportunity for revolutionary content But unfortunately they are now being run on the basis of social media numbers or following The truth is most OTT platforms have hired people who are making bad decisions Instead of using the medium to create content that pushes the envelope people are figuring out how to connect with the masses They are floundering in their desire to do so Our audience is international now so we have to cater to them Look at what Squid Games 2021 did for South Korea What is stopping India from achieving something like that Nothing except that we are thinking narrow On the other hand there is Delhi Crime mdash while it was a show playing out in India its creative sensibilities made the international audience sit up and take notice That is the most productive way to go forwardIs it easy to say no when big projects come your wayIt is easy to make up your mind laughs but harder to perform the action Thankfully we have management teams for that and we have excuses like dates and economics No one wants to hear lsquoSorry I am not into what yoursquove writtenrsquo I donrsquot say that because even if I do not resonate with the material it doesnrsquot mean someone else wonrsquotHow much of the Made in Heaven 2 shoot is leftWe are shooting through the month of March and then wersquoll be done It has been difficult We started in February 2021 after many delays due to the pandemic and witnessed two waves during our shootDo you feel the pressure after the first seasonrsquos successAny pressure on the makers always trickles down to the entire team but it doesnrsquot affect what I do My approach is to play the character honestly and hope that people connect with it again