EXCLUSIVE | Saba Azad: 'Journalism has not evolved but devolved, OTT has given a chance to actors who were lost because...'

Produced by Content Films Productions Pvt. Ltd, Crime Beat web series that’s now streaming on Zee5 is based on the book The Price You Pay by Somnath Batabyal. The show immerses viewers in a dangerous world where rules are bent, secrets are kept, and one journalist’s pursuit of truth could cost him everything—his career, his morals, and even his life.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, the leads Saba Azad and Saqib Saleem spoke about playing journalists, how much it has evolved or devolved, and working together again after 14 years.

Edited excerpts from the interview

Saqib, do you have memories of the 13th of October 2011, one day before the release of your debut film?

Oh, wow. Oh, wow, man. You went all the way back in time. I remember we were in Delhi staying at the Imperial Hotel. The Film released on the 14th and I remember that day. It was a very, very special day. I was just too overjoyed. I had seen the film a day prior in Bombay where it said introducing Saqib Saleem. Aditya Chopra presents Saqib Saleem. I was just over the moon. I was really, really happy.

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Saba, what are your memories of that day?

Saqib: Oh, she was a senior. She’d done a film before. I don’t know.

Saba: I mean, it was still a big deal. And, also because this film was a lot of fun, and I made a lot of friends on this film. I don’t remember the day before the film released. It was fourteen years ago. How do you even remember it? I know where you stayed at. I have no memory of it. I remember we went for a screening two days ago. That was Two days when we came went to Delhi. But I remember there was palpable excitement.

So in these fourteen years, how much have you both changed as actors and how much has journalism changed?

Saba: Saqib has always been a natural actor. He’s always had the energy of an energizer bunny. He’s always full of laughs. He always brings the best energy to set. How he’s trained as an actor is that he’s gotten better with every passing year. And, it was very. I think for me it was so comfortable being on set with him. It was like we never stopped being on set together. And we picked up exactly where we left off And, it felt like coming home.

And, Saqib, how much has Saba changed?

I think she’s gotten more refined as an artist. Of course, when I met her first, she came from this background of theatre and she always even then, I remember that she would make notes on her script. She had posters and even today, she has this habit and I’ve learned that from her. Now I make notes. Her energy is the same. It just didn’t feel like that it had been fourteen years before we worked again.

What about journalism? Will evolve be the right word to describe for journalism?

Saba: Or devolve? I don’t think it’s evolved. Working backwards? Yes. It’s become more of a television show to collect TRPs. It’s going towards that. More fiction than fact. And also even the print journalism for that matter has got into this space of Media and buying and this and that.  And entertainment journalism has become about TRPs and Clickbait. How clickbait and how entertaining the headline is. And I feel like it can be bought. There you have it. Media be bought. So that’s my take on journalism. Don’t hate me guys, journalists. I know yousome of you are doing the work of good fight.

There was a love-hate relationship between the two of you in your first film. But how would you describe your dynamics, in this show?

Saba: Oh, that’s a really good question. I think you’ll have to watch the show. No, but it’s a very interesting dynamic because It’s so encouraging yet competitive. It’s like we’re comfortable with the same spot and able adversaries who inspire and aspire towards what the other has. So they’re able adversaries and allies. At the same time of course, there’s undercurrents of tension, romantic tension amongst other things. Yeah.

Saqib, what I observed about your character is that just like any other crime journalist, he’s a go getter. There is a scene where he’s listening to a conversation between two police officers from a washroom. Do you feel there comes a time when journalists also have to draw a line or do you feel anything goes to achieve that story?

For Abhishek, I’d say there’s no line. Because the circumstances he comes from, he has to deliver and the pressure he’s put on himself to deliver is making him do these things. But I feel like in real life, there has to be a line that nobody should cross. And it’s the moral responsibility of the media not to cross a line, not to make false narratives just to state facts and report facts.

It’s based on the book The Price You Pay. What is the price actors have to pay once they become successful?

Saba: Oh, the loss of anonymity and privacy. And you do not realize till it’s gone how precious that is. My heart goes out to people whose lives are constantly under scrutiny. Imagine if you’re having a bad day, you’re not even allowed to have a bad day because there’s a camera following you. My heart goes out to people who are constantly in the public eye.

Saqib, can anybody ever get used to this, or do you make peace with it after a point?

For the last fourteen years, I’ve been trying to get comfortable with it. You never get absolutely comfortable with it. Like Saba said, you have your good days where you’re very comfortable, but there are days you’re going through something of your own. Those days you’re not comfortable. So it’s an evolving relationship I’ve had with the paparazzi culture or the media entertainment media rather that, some days I have great days with them, but some days, I’m not good in my head and those days I don’t want anybody around. A

Saba, has OTT genuinely given a great platform to writers and directors, and  have we seen an evolution in terms of storytelling and filmmaking?

Absolutely. I think OTT  has been like a second coming to so many incredible actors who perhaps were lost because of box office numbers and just playing shadow characters of one dialogue roles. And we’re talking about incredible actors who are highly educated, who have so much experience, who’ve been in theatre, who’ve been to film institute, and they weren’t getting the chances. And OTT suddenly opened the floodgates for all these incredible performers, writers, directors, who are waiting for a place where they could actually be creative and not be stifled by television TRPs and homogenize cultural references. So I think iOTT has really, really been amazing for changing the game for a lot of people.