After working with Rohit Roy in the TV show "Sanjivani", director Abhijit Das has now joined forces with the actor's brother Ronit Roy for the third season of the web series "Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain".
Talking about the brothers, the director told IANS: "Both are a delight (to work with). They are similar in some aspects. Both are so punctual that the whole team can set their watches with their entry and exit."
Also, they both love their job. "So they add a lot to their scenes. Their command over Hindi is impeccable. But their crafts are very different. Rohit is a director's actor. Ronit on the other hand, prepares a lot before coming on set. He works out the nuances and etches out every scene in his head. He is somebody who works outside the norm and pushes the boundaries for everybody," said the director.
For Das, evotion is essential which is why he quit "Sanjivani" mid-way.
"'Sanjivani 2' came back after 18 years and it was an honour for me to work on it with stalwarts like Mohnish Bahl and Gurdeep (Kohli). But I usually get very restless after some time dealing with a particular story. In a daily soap, the characters usually get a hang of it after some time and I don't think I was adding much value to it," he said.
"I need to keep reinventing myself. Evolution is very important for me. So even though 'Sanjivani 2' was doing very well, I requested my producer Siddharth Malhotra to let me go. I did that with a very heavy heart. I will be working with Siddharth very soon again. He always has great stories to tell and this was our third collaboration. And definitely not the last," he added.
Doing a web series is a different ball game for him.
"Unlike a daily soap, the story arc is set right from the beginning, like a feature film, so it's more exciting to work on a web series. Also the fact that there's no deadline to telecast, there's more freedom to play around with the treatment," said the director, who has worked youth shows like "Gumrah" and "Yeh Hai Aashiqui".
He recently attended the Sundance Film Festival, which he described as "celebration of cinema in its truest form".
"There was such an amazing collection. Sadly there were no films from India. Even Nepal had two films in the competition. There were many world premieres at the festival.
"A long session with Paul Federbush, the International Feature Film Festival Director of Sundance, was particularly enlightening. They have always been keen to build collaborations with India. So I am working on working out opportunities to build new ties and create opportunities for independent writers and filmmakers in India along with the US State Department who sponsored this trip," he said.