Many fan clubs of Pratik Gandhi have wondered why he has chosen to do a Gujarati webseries Vitthal Teedi after the global success of his Hindi series Scam 1992-The Harshad Mehta Story
Explains Pratik, “The walls between mainstream-regional, national-international are gone. The audience is not willing to accept anything sub-standard. Audiences today are watching the best of content from the worldover . There is the same audience for shows in all languages now, so just because your show is in Gujarati it doesn’t mean you can get away with sub-standard quality. Vitthal Teedi is not a poor cousin of Harshad Mehta.”
Pratik who has been an integral part of Gujarati theatre and cinema for years before Scam says Audiences won’t tolerate tackiness, no matter what the language. “This is a big change, Content makers are aware that the audience is the same everywhere. There are no language barriers. We are watching Spanish shows here. They are probably watching Gujarati content in Spain.I feel regional content has always been very fresh-flavoured, There is such a rich literary heritage to choose from in Bengal, Gujarat, Kerala and everywhere.”
Pratik is all praise of regional content. “These regional films and shows are rooted to their ethnic soil .They are original and they will always be ahead in content when compared with mainstream cinema and shows. Mainstream content is guided by formulistic guidelines. Regional content is liberated of formula. There are no stars and stardom in regional cinema. Content is king in regional storytelling. That’s why I feel regional is the next global.”