Digital boom will take over India soon

Shweta Basu Prasad, who shot to fame with ‘Kotha Bangaru Lokam’ is now seen in Amazon Prime’s first Telugu Digital series ‘GangStars’. Telugu superstar Jagapati Babu along with Navdeep, Sidhu Jonnalagadda, Apoorva Arora, Posani Krishna Murali and Sivaji are in a pivotal role in the series.

The 12-episode binge-watch series, ‘GangStars’, brings together the cinematic experience of a film, with the quintessential Telugu style of movie-making After a brief slump, this is Shweta’s comeback to the Telugu film industry and she shares that she is pretty excited about the show. “While cinema remains my first love, I know that the digital wave is taking India by storm. I’m happy to be a part of ‘GangStars’, a series that will truly bring Telugu content to the fore.”

Speaking about her role in the series she informs: “My character is that of a difficult actress and I’m happy that I’ve managed to portray a variety of emotions. I am playing a movie actor called Aishwarya, she is a superstar, who is a gem of a person. She calls a ‘spade’ a ‘spade’ and she will not take no for an answer. She is this tantrum throwing high in her head. ‘GangStars’ has truly brought out the diva in me!”

This is Shweta’s first ever digital series. “I have not done digital series earlier but I have produced short films and I have acted in short films. I have produced and directed a documentary but have not acted in a series till ‘GangStars’ happened. I am looking forward to it. The series is a crazy ride – it is a laugh riot. It has got great cast. And it is very funny I remember we used a laugh so much on the sets while filming it.

Even when I was dubbing I was constantly texting Nandini madam about how hilarious it is. We live in the cinema-crazy country and people always want to know what happens in the life of stars and what happens on the sets, etc. This series is all about that.”

About working with the cast and crew she says, “It was wonderful and it is my second project with Swapna Dutt madam and Navdeep. I have done ‘Super 2’ with Navdeep earlier, which was a reality show. This was a first proper project where I am playing a character. Last year Swapna madam and Nandini madam approached me for playing Apoorva’s role (Apoorva Arora plays Keerthi, niece of a film star's manager, who is star struck with the film industry), but later it was changed to Aishwarya’s role.” 

Shweta believes that digital content will take India by storm. “In the West, they are already releasing big budgeted films on the web. Many prominent actors and filmmakers are moving to digital and I am sure the digital boom will grow in India soon,” she concludes. ‘GangStars’ is  available in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi on Amazon Prime Video.