Move over TV serials, because the latest entrant in the world of entertainment, webseries, is taking over. And part of what is touted as one of the first “thrillers webseries” of its kind is a Hyderabadi, Priyadarshi Pulikonda, who plays a pivotal role in the Mumbai-based series.
A former student of the University of Hyderabad, Priyadarshi was always interested in acting. “Even in university, I would act in short films and so over a period of time after university, I found myself doing many more short-films,” says Priyadarshi who has done around 12 short films till date.
And it was during one such project that he met the writer of the Web series, Yogi Chopra. “Yogi Chopra is the director of the 48 Hour Film Project, India. He first noticed me in a short film and after that we met in Hyderabad in 2014.
We kept in touch and he sent me a message one day asking me if I would like to join his Web series. “I play a Hyderabadi drug dealer in the series and I found the concept very interesting, so I signed up for it. My character has shades of grey and it all seems quite promising,” he says.
The Web series revolves around five people in Mumbai and how their lives cross paths and what happens when they do. “Currently, we are in the crowd-funding stage. The makers of the series wanted to have complete creative freedom, so crowdfunding was the way to go. Our aim is to gather '8 lakh and the initial plan is to have eight episodes... depending on the way it shapes up, we could shoot more,” explains Priyadarshi.
But why a Web series? “The makers found that the TV audience might not be ready for such mature content, where as the Web audience wants more of such content,” he explains. “I have just worked in a Telugu feature film, Terror, directed by Satish Kasetty. It’s a small role, but an important one,” he says.
