With his web film Lahore Confidential dropping online, Arunoday Singh on how OTT has resurrected his career.
Arunoday Singh and Richa Chadha in Lahore Confidential
An espionage thriller was missing from Arunoday Singh’s resume until Lahore Confidential came his way. Despite the mixed reviews, the actor asserts the Kunal Kohli-directed film will be a memorable project for him. Singh recounts shooting the Richa Chadha and Karishma Tanna starrer in the middle of the pandemic last year. “We shot the film in October in Lucknow. The lockdown has been hard on people; I was blessed to be working. Shooting in such conditions was a risky decision for producers.”
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The Zee5 film sees him play a velvet-tongued Pakistani event manager, who befriends Chadha’s RAW agent. “I have always been interested in poetry, but had little exposure to Urdu poetry over the years. The film gave me an opportunity to dive into that world,” he says.
After being part of films like Yeh Saali Zindagi (2011), Jism 2 (2012) and Blackmail (2018), Singh went on to explore digital entertainment with Apaharan — Sabka Katega and Chargesheet.
Arunoday Singh
He believes the OTT boom resurrected his career. “In films, I was stuck in a cycle of limited and stereotypical parts. [With the advent of the web world], it was refreshing to be offered more complicated parts and fleshed out characters. I have a sharp instinct [for good scripts], but [I can employ that] only if I am allowed to choose. There have been several instances when I have done films only because I have to pay my bills. You need to keep working; that doesn’t necessarily imply that every film you do, is your cup of tea.”