Riding on the digital wave

Navdeep is one of the energetic actors of this generation and he has never been the one to shy away from exploring different mediums. His recent stint is with the web. He played the lead role in the digital series titled ‘Mana Mugguri Love Story’, which raked in positive reviews.

Just when people write him off, he re-emerges in a new avatar. The young actor, who garnered renewed fame with the maiden season of ‘Bigg Boss’ is now paired along Jagapathi Babu in the first Telugu series on Amazon Prime – ‘GangStars’.

With overtones of comedy, this fast-paced series promises great performances by a talented cast. A Gangster, a Superstar, a Diva, a Newbie Producer, a Struggling Director and a Blockbuster Producer – all come together in this laugh riot titled ‘GangStars’. The series is produced by Silly Monks Entertainment and Early Monsoon Tales, the web division of ‘Mahanati’ producer, Vyjayanthi Movies.

‘“GangStars’ personifies the essence of Telugu cinema. It’s fun, energetic and most of all, super entertaining! The team has come together wonderfully to create this masterpiece and I’m sure audiences from across the country will enjoy it,” Navdeep shares.

The series is set in the backdrop of the film industry and involves two movie stars, two ex-lovers, and one gangster. How one incident sets up a chain of events in motion and interconnects the lives of all these characters, interspersed with a murder is the intriguing crux of the narrative. Telugu star Jagapathi Babu plays a gangster diagnosed with cancer. Swetha Basu Prasad plays a haughty actress while Navdeep plays an actor. Sidhu Jonnalagadda is a struggling filmmaker and Apoorva Arora, a new film producer.

About his role, Navdeep says, “Basically he is a very arrogant superstar. He gets fame and success as soon as he enters the industry and as he does not know how to handle it, he becomes a little brash. He has this feeling that ‘he-does-not-need-the-industry, the-industry-needs-him’. And it is on the funny side; it is not that he is a bad guy; he is a very good guy but has developed arrogance as stardom reached his head. He is opposite of what I am in real life (laughs).”

“As film crazy people we are also interested in gossip that we keep hearing behind the scenes, etc., so we tried to incorporate such incidences in the show. And playing an arrogant role was not that difficult for me (laughs).”

Navdeep shares that working with cast especially with Jagapati Babu was a cool experience. “I know Jagapati Babu garu before the series as we met at parties, a couple of time. He is a very cool guy. (See) there are some actors who are same on and off-screen; basically, their attitude is like that. But he is a chilled-out guy. We have a lot to learn from him because he has seen a lot of ups and downs and he has been there for a lot of years.”

Shweta and Navdeep have also worked together in the Telugu reality show ‘Super 2’. About the collaboration in the recent web series, he says, “As ‘Super 2’ was a reality show Swetha and I used to chill and hang out in Bangkok. This is the first time that we are doing some serious work (laughs) like proper shooting for a series. ‘Super 2’ was fun and so is working with her in ‘GangStars’.”

About the transition from films to the TV to digital series Navdeep says, “Every medium is like a bridge. Like cine actors doing TV and TV actors doing films; similarly, now digital series is one platform that gives an opportunity to filmmakers. And in digital, distribution is not a problem. For example, let's talk about my movies, a few of them, had distribution problems, but with digital content that is not an obstacle. And with ‘GangStars’, which has a huge star cast, the digital series in Telugu will only grow more.”

“I am starting a film now and the shooting will commence next week. We are going to Kerala for that. I hope Nipah virus gets controlled by then,” Navdeep signs off on a lighter note.