In the web series Jubilee, the character of Jamshed Khan, an upcoming actor, is touted as the next big thing. Everyone wants to get a piece of him, because talent like this doesn’t come by too often. In real life, actor Sidhant Gupta who plays theatre director Jay Khanna in the show, is drawing similar curiosity ever since the show released on Amazon Prime last week. Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, Jubilee is set in the Hindi film industry of the 1940s and ’50s (it starts in 1947), and is about a bunch of people trying to find their destiny in tinsel town. It also stars Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee as big-shot producer Srikant Roy, Aparshakti Khurana as his Man Friday, and Aditi Rao Hydari as Roy’s wife and a top actress. 

At a time where loud crime dramas are getting eyeballs, Jubilee is quiet, but charming. Especially Gupta as the intense, yet light-in-manner Jay. Gupta last grabbed eyeballs as Kunj Sarna from Zee TV’s romantic-drama Tashan-e-Ishq. The director has a knack for giving young actors a role that sheds a completely new light on what they could do with their craft—think Abhay Deol in Dev D, Rajat Barmecha in Udaan, Harshvardhan Kapoor in Bhavesh Joshi Superhero and Ranveer Singh in Lootera. As Jubilee gathers steam, Motwane and Gupta speak to us about process and progress.