W hat happens when you put together a group of young actors and an original script that pretty much anyone can relate to? You get ScoopWhoop’s popular web-series, Baked . Launched in May 2015, the show features the adventures of Md. Haris, Oni, and Body, three college students in Delhi, who start a midnight food delivery service. Played by Pranay Manchanda, Shantanu Anam, and Manik Papneja respectively, the characters find themselves in crazy situations in each of the seven episodes. Maheep Singh — Inspector Gulaab Singh, and Kriti Vij (Tara Brara) play supporting roles that add humour and depth to the show.
“It helped that all of us knew each other and have worked together before. So, when director Vishwajoy Mukherjee approached us, we were quite happy to agree,” says Shantanu, adding that he found it comparatively easier to portray Oni, as the character was just a slight caricature of his own persona. Pranay, however, found it quite challenging. “I’m a Punjabi boy, born and raised in Delhi. So to play Haris, who is from Allahabad — a place I have never been to — required a lot of work. I could never act on auto-pilot.”
None of the actors expected such a great response to the show, which has an average of one million views for the first season. On December 9, the second season was launched on YouTube. However, there’s one difference. While similar programming is released one episode at a time, all seven episodes in the new season have been made available at the same time. Kriti says, “Everyone likes to binge-watch now, so we decided to make it easy for them. But it also has to do with viewership patterns.” Shantanu explains, “Even if we have a loyal viewership, most people end up missing out on the next one. This way, they get to watch everything at once.” That’s only about two-and-a-half hours, which is amateur on the binge-watching scale.
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The new season promises more hilarity, says Pranay, adding that all the characters evolve and relationships grow. “It was interesting to see that change, and we are sure our viewers will appreciate it too,” he says.
Watch Baked Season 2 on ScoopWhoop’s YouTube channel.