OTT players have come and united us: Guneet Monga Kapoor

Guneet Monga Kapoor and Karan Johar’s Dharmatics have recently released the trailer of their first series together, ‘Gyaarah Gyaarah’, which is set to release on ZEE5 on August 9. The suspense thriller stars Raghav Juyal, Dhairya Karwa and Kritika Kamra and it tells the story of ''one of the cops is in 90s and another is in 2016 and they communicate with each other through walkie talkie'' and solve crimes. Umesh Bisht has directed this show.

Both Guneet Monga Kapoor and Umesh spoke in detail about making their debut OTT series and working with each other. 

Academy award winner Guneet forayed into OTT through her movies, but this is her first actual long format show. Guneet said, “We have been working on this show for the past two and a half years. OTT players have come and united us, they have connected our entire nation. We have diverse content in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and so many other Indian languages, which can be viewed across the country. I think that is the beauty of India as there is something for everyone. I feel OTT is also democratic and has allowed to do more and tell more stories. We are doing long format shows. It has opened up the market and expanded it, especially for people who are outsiders. People who are coming into the industry with a dream have a chance to come and shine and conquer.”

Continuing further Guneet Monga Kapoor said that she had made a short film, called ‘Gupt Gyaan’, which became so big that it had to make into an entire series, called ‘Gutur Gu’. “That was my first series which was released. But ‘Gyaarah Gyaarah’ is my biggest series. I loved the storytelling and the energy. We have done films, ads, short films, and given a chance, I would keep doing it and keep telling a story,” she added.

Explaining the thought behind the concept of ‘Gyaarah Gyaarah’, Umesh said, “If you look at the concept of time in Indian philosophy, there have been a lot of debates and discussions around it. Is there something beyond time and space? It is infinite, there is no start or end to it. These sorts of questions have no answers. I wanted to work on a mystery thriller. I got both these concepts together and had fun creating it. It was interesting to bring suspense and philosophy together.”

Although Umesh has worked with Guneet Monga Kapoor before, this is his first collaboration with Dharma and ZEE5. Sharing his thoughts on working with them, he said, “They all are big names in the industry. You can build a good relationship with them only when your voice is being heard. What kind of respect and space you get in the relationship, you get to know it immediately. At times it has happened that I thought this is not right, but Guneet or Achin found it good.”

On how he got together with Guneet Monga Kapoor for ‘Gyaarah Gyaarah’, Umesh shared, “It was during the time when we were working on ‘Pagglait’. Guneet was set to go to America, when I met her and briefly narrated the story while having tea with her. On hearing the concept she literally jumped up with excitement! What I feel is that when you work with such a good people, your intention has to be right.”

Adding further, he said, “Normally, what creative people fear is that somebody should not interfere in their work. But I have got wonderful producers at Dharmatics and ZEE5 who encourage me a lot. It is magical when your energies match!”