Dushyant Pratap Singh: OTT opened the gates for me as a director

DCinema-goers have started coming to theatres and OTT reach is also at its prime, so we are looking forward to doing many projects and bringing them to our audience. DUSHYANT PRATAP SINGH, Director

irector Dushyant Pratap Singh, known for his recent work The Hundred Bucks, enjoys making films that are backed by strong content. He has directed feature films such as Zindagi Shatranj Hai, is also all geared up for his next OTT series, Trahimam .“The Hundred Bucks was my first directorial effort and was running in theatres when lockdown was clamped, and later, it did very well on OTT. It opened the gates for me as a director.”

Singh, who dons the cap of a singer, composer and actor, is also shooting for another web series in Lucknow. “The series script has been penned by Dongri Ka Raja (2016) writer M Salim. We have done the initial recce and will start the shoot in the first week of January in the city,” he says.

Actor Amit Tiwari, who predominantly works in Telugu cinema, plays the protagonist in the series. It has an ensemble cast which features actors Ali Asgar, Shahwar Ali, Aishwarya Raj Bhukani, Poojaa Bisht, and a few international artistes as well. It will be shot in Sri Lanka as well. “We can’t reveal the title of the series, but it’s a story of a ‘human statue’ from a small town in Uttar Pradesh who gets stuck in Sri Lanka,” shares the director.

The filmmaker says that during the pandemic, he shot multiple projects that would come one after another. Besides movies, the lineup also includes “two short films: Dark Cheer, starring Rajniesh Duggall; and Ek Thi Rukma, based on the story of (writer and playwright) Saadat Hasan Manto”.

He feels now is a perfect time for projects to reach the audience. “Cinema-goers have started coming to theatres and OTT reach is also at its prime, so we are looking forward to doing many projects and bringing them to our audience,” adds Singh.