TV is becoming a mirror to the society through some out-of-the-box underdog stories. Sangeeta Yadav talks to actors about this trend
An auto rickshaw driver from Mumbai who made headlines for carrying his two-year-old daughter with him wherever he went, an amateur rapper who made it big in the evolving rapping scene in India and Swami Ramdev who has cured facial paralysis through yoga, Discovery Jeet brings to you some underdog stories of people from all walks of life it making big in life.
Amol Parashar, who has worked in movies like Rocket Singh, Traffic and The Viral Fever’s web series Tripling and Bisht Please, has made his debut on TV with Discovery Jeet’s Gabru as Gaurav aka MC Money. “The only reason I was away from TV was that I couldn’t find relatable content. It is not about the medium but the stories that we tell which need to be more realistic and creative. Discovery Jeet delves into such stories. I feel there is a very slow change happening on TV. People are willing to explore new forms of storytelling and experiment with new finite formats,” Parashar says.
Bringing the story of a budding rapper, Parashar says: “Gaurav’s journey is inspired from budding rappers who never got the spotlight. The story picks up from the time when nobody used to listen to rap music and how the underground rap scene emerged. He goes on to be the first popular rapper in the country from Punjab who faced off with another budding rapper from Mumbai. How rap becomes mainstream and gets featured in films cores the story. In the limited episode, we have covered his journey of five-six years,” he tells you.
The rap trend which started off from Punjab has now spread like wildfire in States like North-east, South India and Delhi, Bhopal and Mumbai as well. “So far we have had Punjabi influence on the rap but other regions are also picking up. You can see the Mumbaiya style of rap in Paintra music from the movie Mukkebaaz which is done by Divine rappers. Rap is intended to be hard-hitting and voicing the problems in life. While researching for this show to get the right style and know the culture of rap music, I saw a lot of videos and got to know that there are some 100 boys in Delhi and 50 boys in lucknow who are rapping. There are not just boys but girls as well who are doing this but I never heard anyone before I signed this show,” Parashar shares.
These stories are subtly woven with messages for the audience. “When Gaurav becomes famous, he doesn’t know how to cope with it. His personality changes and he turns into an obnoxious human being. It was difficult for me to be in that character for 12 hours as his anger and arrogance would leave me emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. Success drives him crazy. There is a message — ambitions should not come at the cost of personal life and relationships,” Parashar says.
Kranti Prakash Jha, who has done movies like Once Upon a Time in Bihar, Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-leela and MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, has also made his debut on TV with a biopic titled Swami Ramdev-Ek Sangharsh. “The show throws light on how Ramkrishna Yadav became Swami Ramdev. How coming from a lower cast with facial paralytic, Baba Ramdev achieved success. It is the story of great determination and indomitable spirit of a person who believed in himself. He made yoga simple and brought it to everyone’s house which we Indians didn’t value until a decade back,” Jha says.
To get into the shoe of the character, Jha did a lot of preparation. “It is a very big responsibility to be the medium to narrate Baba Ramdev’s life who has become so popular worldwide and how he cured his facial paralysis through yoga. To do justice to the character, I have been doing yoga and reading one of his favourite books Satyarth Prakash by Swami Dayanand Saraswati. I went and stayed with Swamiji for four days. At 5 am, we used to do yoga for one-and-a-half hours. Every morning I had 30 ml of amla juice, aloe vera juice and giloy juice with luke water which helps build immunity. I also do half-an-hour of pranayama every day which includes 12 breathing exercises,” Jha says, adding that he went through the transformation from having a gym body to yoga body.
Another show Mere Papa Hero Hiralal starring Sarwar Ahuja is also inspired from a true story of an auto driver who carries his two-year-old daughter with him while driving the vehicle as after his wife suffered a paralytic attack.
“We’ve fictionalised the story which revolves around the single parent’s journey of bring up his daughter and faces a lot of twists and turns. In 12 years of my career, I am playing a poor guy for the first time. I was always born and brought up in a comfortable environment. It is tough to understand how people make ends meet with limited resources and struggle to get even small things done through Government hospitals or schools. I’m inspired from this show to be a better person,” Ahuja says, adding that TV will grow more from now with good quality content and finite format.