Actor Arjan Bajwa recently joined NewsX for an exclusive conversation as part of NewsX India A-List. In the exclusive conversation, the actor opened up about the challenges he faced during the pandemic and also talked about his upcoming projects. Talking about how he dealt with the pandemic, Arjan said, “I think last year we were a little bit new to the whole scenario so we did not really know what to do and even though there was a fear factor always, Sword was hanging on your head that you were not aware of what the consequences of this kind of a situation would be. Still, we were a little more optimistic this time when it happened. It instilled much more fear because you knew what it could do.”
“Considering that, the second wave was such a shocking sudden wave and it was a complete chaos situation. Within a few days, I would say, not even, weeks or months, it just spread like wildfire. So, this time it was scarier because I very clearly remember that every five minutes you would hear an ambulance going, which was not the case last year because everybody was locked in completely. The infection was not spreading so fast but this year was a pretty scary situation because all you could see or hear all around, was that there is no coronavirus happening but somebody or the other that we knew was down with it. People lost their lives. I have lost a lot of really close friends during this time. So I guess. All you can do is hope for the better, take care of yourself and keep a positive attitude,” he added.
Talking about the challenges that actors faced as a result of the pandemic he stated that “Film business happens when people physically get together in groups, only then the work happens. So, when you can’t do that, there is no work or way for it to happen, you’re not going to be shooting a film sitting by yourself at home on a camera and putting it across, so it was difficult. Like I said, we are part of the same ecosystem in society and then everybody has to follow the same norms and same things that everyone suffered and so did the artwork. Yes, I was shooting for a series, and we just kind of were at the end of the shoot. There was only about a week or 10 days of work, which was left around the 15 April, and then the lockdown happened. We were, in fact, assuming that maybe in another week or 10 days when lockdown is lifted, we’ll finish up. Everybody has their own schedule. We have to work according to everyone’s timelines. It has been two months and we haven’t been able to start now. It seems that things are getting back to normal and we should resume so. Everyone suffered.”
Speaking about his previous projects like the ‘State Of Siege’, he expressed, “I hope it’s being re-watched and it’s being watched over and over again multiple times because the ‘State of Siege’ was a very ambitious project for us, not only in terms of the way it was subjective, it was based on the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and we were trying to give an award to the NSC to the Blackcat commandos who were very instrumental in passing of the virus at that time, nobody really kind of made anything from their point of view. So this was made from their point of view and, of course, very well shot and very well made with all the possibilities you could think of, again, my first series is also based on a book called ‘Black Tornado: The Three Sieges of Mumbai’, but unfortunately it released on the 20 March and from 24 March onwards, everything was locked down so we didn’t really do much of marketing or publicity we had like five-city tour and everything possible.”
“It is very important for any project to be marketed and publicised before the release in a big way, on a large scale for people to understand and know that this is something we should watch. All we could do at that time was probably digital promotion on social media and news channels and took ideas from people. So that did help, but considering the kind of publicity that we should have done to the marketing that should have been done could not happen. At that time, the situation sort of didn’t really allow us to go all out with the promotions, but I’m very happy that people are watching ‘State Of Siege’, I do get a lot of messages from people and how they have really liked my role that I played of a real-life hero of the Indian Army. Also, most of my films get so much repeat value on television,” he added.
When asked about the coexistence of OTT and film, he responded, “There is no difference as such, it’s just a difference of medium of exhibition and I wouldn’t even call that medium of exhibition because earlier the film used to have satellite rights, so to say, in the correct language that they use, with the satellite rights you could play it on television, he could play on the right, and now similarly whatever content is made on a platform called OTT, it’s played on a small screen. People prefer to watch it on small screens, I myself never watch any series, whether it’s on any platform. I watch it on my iPad because I find it convenient, it’s more of a personal relationship with that series that you’re watching but for an actor for over permissions, there is no difference as such, because the filmmaking process is exactly the same, it’s rigorous it’s absolutely the same the kind of stuff that’s being made on for OTT in terms of series.”
It is very important for any project to be marketed and publicised before the release in a big way, on a large scale for people to understand and know that this is something we should watch. All we could do at that time was probably digital promotion on social media and news channels and took ideas from people. So that did help, but considering the kind of publicity that we should have done to the marketing that should have been done could not happen. At that time, the situation sort of didn’t really allow us to go all out with the promotions, but I’m very happy that people are watching ‘State Of Siege’. I do get a lot of messages from people and how they have really liked my role that I played of a real-life hero of the Indian Army. Also, most of my films get so much repeat value on television.