The year 2018 has so far been good for Jagapathi Babu, with his role as the brooding village sarpanch Phanindra Bhupathi in Rangasthalam winning him accolades from critics and the audience.
Juggling his time between a flurry of Malayalam projects and Surender Reddy’s magnum opus Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy , the actor is also foraying into the digital space with Amazon Prime Video’s first Telugu web series GangStars , directed by Ajay Bhuyan. That the series was conceived by Nandini Reddy (creative director of the series) helped; the two have been good friends since the last two decades. “She had just informed me about writing a web series and gave me a narration. I jumped on the bandwagon first. I was happy with the homework she had done.”
The actor plays a gangster called KD in the web series, a role that has regularly come to him in films like Antahpuram, Jaya Janaki Nayaka and Ism . Yet, KD’s characterisation felt fresh, he says. “It’s a major departure from the gangster roles I’ve done; this has a lot of lighter shades. KD isn’t smart, but you see his innocence, sense of humour, arrogance and sympathise with him too.”
Jagapathi Babu shares screen space with Navdeep, Shweta Basu and Sidhu Jonnalagadda in the series. The on-set experience was almost film-like for the actor. “I didn’t feel this was any different from a film in terms of freedom. The logistics varied though. The crew was smaller. I feel this format is a blessing for those who don’t know to market a movie. One needn’t chase distributors and exhibitors. A lot of money is saved. We don’t need to go overboard on the publicity drive, needn’t search for theatres and the content is in safe hands and not quite affected by competition.”
As an actor, the level of detailing in a web series like GangStars excited him. “In comparison to movies, these nuances really enhance the viewing experience. A movie at the most lasts for three hours. There are certain limitations; you are forced to be minimalistic at times.”
He thinks every generation is represented by a viewing format, explaining the transition from films to television and the online explosion. “The viewership too has grown accordingly. I haven’t watched Telugu series much though I’m a lot into other digital content. Something like Narcos , the gangster stuff really interests me.” The actor wishes to do a series on the lines of The Godfather and Assasin’s Creed soon. “Popularity in films helps an actor in a web series, the value and the reach grows. In every likelihood, we may see a lot of exclusive web series actors soon, many aspirants who may not find their way towards filmdom can channelise their talent here.”
GangStars will be available on Amazon Prime Video in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil from June 1.
