Well known film and stage actor Arif Zakaria, last seen in Netflix dystopian series Leila is playing an important character of Prime Minister Nehru in Mahesh Manjrekar’s new web series on 1962 Indo – China war, reportedly on Hotstar.
Arif who also got rave reviews for his performance in spy saga Raazi confirmed the same saying, “I don’t want to share more details as it would be more appropriate for the makers to make relevant announcements.”
He also did not confirm the platform saying, “They keep changing.”
“Interestingly I am also playing India’s first Prime Minister in one more Marathi web project which deals with the Samyukt Maharashtra movement of the fifties which eventually lead to erstwhile Bombay province to be carved into Maharashtra and Gujarat.”
Here Arif refused to comment on the new political narrative of blaming Pandit Nehru for all ills blaming the country. “Please I don’t want to comment on this being a political person. I also don’t fancy being assassinated after talking to you.”
Talking about OTT per say Arif says, “While it has opened new vistas for censorship free content, the flip side is that due to oversupply, most shows go unsung unless it really grabs your attention.”
Ask him if the political nature of Leila will throw open the floodgates of censorship and answers, “I hope not, it would be silly if that happens. While the above Deepa Mehta co production is set in the future, what can one do if people find similarities to the present. Here you need to doff your hat to the skills of the writers (Urmi Juvekar and Suhani Kanwar etc) for creating a story which is relevant to the viewers. All stories whether it is set in the past or future will have some moorings in the here and now. Does the age old clash between good v/s evil also dominate sci- fi shows like Star Wars etc?”
“As regards protests I think we live in oversensitive times, there is a need to just chill.”
