Happy and satisfied!: Shashank

Shashank Siddamsetty, who has worked in National Award-winning film ‘Aithe’ made his digital debut with ‘Ekkadiki Ee Parugu’. The series is the story of a famous chef Madhur Anand (Shashank) and his journey in search of his missing wife - Vaishnavi played by Pavani Gangireddy.

The other actors in the series are Aryan Rajesh, Kalpika Ganesh, Rajat Varkari, Abhay Bethiganti and Dr Pramod Kumar. The first season of the six-episodic web series was released on January 8 on ZEE5.

About his role in the series he says, “I play a character called Madhur Anand and he is the driving factor for the story. The show, through the character of Madhur, highlights the struggle a common man goes through, in his quest to find the truth. The character arc has a lot of variations and it has a tinge of negativity and positivity. It is a mixture of a lot of things. You will never know when this character is negative or positive. I believe ‘Ekkadiki Ee Parugu’ will garner immense traction from the audience.”

Talking about his prep for the role he shares, “One advantage was that in real life I own a restaurant ‘Mayabazar’. So, I closely observed our chefs on regular basis and picked up quirks from them. And honestly speaking, I did not do any other homework because Abhilash Reddy (director) has done quite a lot of homework and with his support and research we could it pull it off.”

Shashank informs that he was sceptical about doing the web series. “When they approached me for this role, I was not ready for a web series, because I was still into movies and I was mulling if I should venture into digital medium now or at a later point of life in my career. When Abhilash narrated the script to me I really liked it because the content of the series is engaging.

I just told him - if you are doing it on par with film standards then I am in, because the story and concept are really good. He assured me that and I said yes!” Shashank finds shooting for a web series tougher than films. “Content-wise a series is harder because, with so much available at fingertips, every moment of the content should be engaging or else the user will switch immediately. And that way prep takes more time.”

“Initially we were thinking to release one episode every week, or at least in three days, however, that has become a passé now. We released first six episodes because binge watching is a trend now and we will release another six episodes towards January ending.”

The actor believes that the digital is future. “Digital medium in five years or less will be a huge thing. And I feel it will run parallelly with cinema. And a lot of fresh and newer content is coming, so it will grow immensely and there is no doubt about it. This is just beginning…If I get good scripts in future, I will definitely do more web series.”