EXCLUSIVE | Chandan Roy Sanyal on 'Lootere' & 'Patna Shuklla': 'Great to see both releasing on the same platform in a span of a week'

Chandan Roy Sanyal has exceled in every role he has essayed in his trajectory, starting from Kaminey in 2009 to Aashram in 2020.

He had two back-to-back releases on Disney Hotstar- Lootere and Patna Shuklla, and in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, opened up on the series and the film and playing dark roles.

With Lootere and Patna Shuklla having released one after another, how excited have you been.

It’s a great feeling that two of my work is releasing on the same platform in a span of a week. One is a show and one is a film. One is a show by Mr. Hansal Mehta, directed by Jay Mehta, and playing a completely different… It’s like a funny guy who gets really serious by the end of the show. And an impartial player is a serious lawyer, very classic lawyer, rich, elite, who’s fighting a small town lawyer in a court over a case where somebody has to prove a worth in the society, a poor girl. So just to be part of two completely different genres, completely different characters, is my little way of showing, trying to bring different characters to audience, and enjoy playing these characters.

You play grey characters really well, be it Aashram or Sanak or the unforgettable Kaminey . What’s the fun of playing them?

I don’t just play dark characters but I also try to play everything that’s given to me which I choose or say yes to, and do full justice to it. Be it Sanak or Aashram or Kaminey, they just happen to be on the other side of the law. but I think a audience also likes such kind of fun characters Because I think being grey is a little fun for the audience and there’s something you can’t be in real life. So I sort of really enjoy playing them and try and put my imagination to it and that’s what I think audience enjoys a lot. So it’s really fun but yeah I like to try out other roles too like romance and comedy and stuff like that.

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What do you have to say about the evolution of OTT in these last few years?

I think the evolution of OTT has been a great sort of thing for the audience as well as artists, be it actors, directors, musicians, anyone, because what happens is with the coming of the OTT, a lot of acting offers, a lot of talent, they have given their sort of, they’ve got more work due to it, and more time under the sun to play with different kind of characters, and audiences also accepted them, with the running of great shows on various platforms, beat an ashram or Paatal Lok or Panchayat, and so many, many more, you know, these shows have gotten, got a new talent to the fore, and just not, I mean, now it’s an open field, it’s not just being about a movie star, it’s, you have, it’s about being an actor, a true blood actor, a true blue actor can sort of, you know, audience has woken up to that feeling also.

Lootere is getting some fantastic reviews. A dated question but how does it feel.

I think it’s great. I saw the show last night with my team and I think it looks fantastic and it just looks unique and something never been tried on Indian web shows. Like a show set in Somalia with pirates and all these funny dark characters. A lot of tension, great music, great cinematography, great editing, sound design. I mean, Jay has done an excellent job by putting the show together and I’ve been working on it for almost five years. And to be part of it, of a show like that is so fantastic and to be held by Mr. Hansal Mehta, one of the best men out there who does such storytelling. And it’s a great feeling to be part of such a unique show. And I’m proud of my choices and my work. I mean, though everybody complains that I do very little work but I think whatever I do, I do it with utmost integrity and honesty and sincerity. And I’m glad that it shows on the screen and I’ve already started getting messages from people that thought it was fabulous to see me in that screen. So yeah, I mean, if you look at my bar editor, iMDB, most of my work I have done, I’ve excelled in those parts because I’ve given my utmost sincerity and honesty and integrity to it. So it always feels great. Yes, thank you.

What can people who are yet to see Patna Shuklla expect from the film?

Patna Shuklla is like a social drama about the society, about the education system, about how people really put their heart and soul to, you know, in the kids and then something goes wrong and then this whole fight, the film is actually a great social drama and how this little girl from a poor background fights just for justice against the system with Patna Shukla and I play this guy who’s trying to stop them. But I’m not a bad guy, I’m just trying to do my job here and it was amazing, I mean it’s an exciting film for me as an actor and for the audience because I think they’re already going on in almost 40 million views for the trailer, I think and literary and Patna Shuklla is the completely varied, diagonally opposite piece of work, so looking forward.

Which is the one character of yours you would love to play again and why?

I would love to play, I think it’s cliched, but I would love to play Mikhail all over again. Because I think I can do it better and I can do more justice to it as an actor now. And I wish a tad longer, just for not just for me as an actor but also for the audience. Because for the audience, a lot of people thought that Mikhail should have lived longer. So maybe another time another Mikhail with a longer part will be fun. I think that energy is still untapped which Mikhail had, which I still probably dreaming under me. I think I would love to play Mikhail, something like that all over again and with a longer duration. I think that audience will really going to have fun.