Anupam Santosh Saroj, Director of Twisted had in our guest blog dated December 2017 had categorically stated that Twisted 2 will do better than Twisted ().
And now, more than six months later, the statement has come true and Twisted 2’s first episode has crossed the 3 million mark!!
In an exclusive interview with IWMBuzz.com, the elated Director recalls the whole journey of the the filming of Twisted 2.
Says Anupam, “It is really overwhelming, seeing the love viewers have showered on Twisted 2. I did my debut as Director with Twisted last year; when it happened, I did not expect it to be such a huge hit. But when the numbers came in and subscriptions increased, honestly I could not believe what I was seeing. Later, when the word about Twisted 2 being made spread, there was huge pressure on me to keep the success story of Twisted going in the Season 2 too. As the Director, I felt the pressure. But my personal aim was to make Twisted 2 a bigger success that Twisted. Honestly, the success would not have been so sweet, had Twisted 2 not crossed the mark of the first. I am very much relieved and happy. Twisted 2 has got a bigger response than 1. The entire team stood up, accepted the challenge to make Twisted 2 bigger. While I shot Twisted as a web-series, I brought in the cinematic experience in Twisted 2. As we had to cater to audiences on VB on the Web, I shot it just like a film. I gave wide shots; every scene opening was big. The script this time was much better too.”
Talking about the big difference in concept in Twisted 2, the Director avers, “While Twisted was very complicated in terms of story, there was a lot more of transparency in Twisted 2. However, in Twisted 2, we dealt deep down into the emotional side of both the characters, Aaliyah and Aaryan. All the actors did a fabulous job. There was a personal growth for all involved with Twisted 2, starting from actors, director, writers, DOP. We are happy that the audience has responded positively to the big growth that we have seen through this series.”
Applauding the effort of his ‘Boss’ Vikram Bhatt, Anupam states, “All credit goes to Boss and his team of writers for giving the series a great characterization. They made it possible on paper after a lot of brainstorming. And on set, it was my responsibility to execute it the way it was written. Personally if you ask me, I am a die-hard romantic; I am emotional and sensitive too. The moment I got to know that Twisted 2 will have an intense love story, I was very excited.”
Anupam and the lead actors Nia Sharma and Rrahul Sudhir have been best of friends and it helped them gel well as a team. “Half the job was done with a great script in hand. When I sat down with Nia and Rrahul, we could feel the moment described in the scene. Since we three have gelled well, are good friends having stayed in touch for all the time, it was easier for us to combine as a team.”
Anupam states that he has achieved few personal highs with the success of Twisted 2. I have matured as a person with the series. I am an introvert, and don’t like socializing. I have only limited friends in my life. However, with all the emotions flowing while on shoot, I have started to feel that I have become more expressive post Twisted 2. Even after two months of shoot of Twisted 2, I still have the hangover of being expressive. This is a good sign for me. In fact, I have gotten impatient with time, and I feel that this is also a kind of expression, showing the irritability factor. So you can say that I have matured with emotions.”
On future work, Anupam shares with us, “I am happy being successful again with Twisted 2. After Twisted’s success, I got better in the technical aspects with Rain. Now, Twisted 2 has given me an overall experience and made me complete as a Director. I look forward to a revenge drama now as my next series. Work will start on it soon.”
Way to go, Anupam!!