Viraf Phiroz Patel is very happy with the response his story, The Massage, in the Eros anthological (episodic stories) series, Flip, is getting. “Full marks to the creator, Bejoy Nambiar, and the writers, to have come up with such an edge of the seat story. There are twists and turns at every corner. Sometimes we actors are very lucky to get such juicy scripts to chew on.”
“Massage traces the story of two Parsi men in the late nineties. I loved working with Jim Sarbh because he is such a giving actor. Even Sandeepa Dhar was fun to share screen space with.”
“Being a Parsi myself, it became easy to get the body language and nuance. And since I have many friends who were in their twenties at that time, I got lots of reference points as well.”
Talking about the Parsi swears, he says jokingly, “No one really bats an eyelid when Parsis or Punjabis abuse. Also, this is the first time I could vent my spleen on screen. Otherwise cuss words are always beeped out on TV.”
Talking about the open-ended climax of Massage, he says, “It was Bejoy’s call as story teller. Interestingly, we had a different ending written, which was changed at the eleventh hour.”
Viraf further says, “I hope our series does well in the long run, though Eros Now has already declared that it is their highest viewing original so far. The best part is that different people have their own personal takes on each of the four stories. Some have liked one/two, but not the others. Luckily, no one has said a bad word about Massage so far.”
Although Viraf has one more Alt Balaji web series up his sleeve, he is more eager to get back to TV after Namkaran. “It took me a while to understand small screen grammar, but now I have got it. I really respect TV writers and creators. The best part of TV is that you shoot on Monday and you see your episode on Wednesday, which is a new high.” Over the years, Viraf has done varied TV shows such as Mahi Ve, Ek Boond Ishq, etc.
He also does not feel that web is only full of sex. “Agreed there are edgy sensual series like Gandii Baat. But then there are other concepts like Home and Made in Heaven as well. It is the job of the content creator and actors to cater to all kinds of markets.”
