Tanuj Virwani: OTT had enormous impact on my career

Actor Tanuj Virwani, whose latest web series 'Cartel' is his fourth digital release this year, says the OTT platform has had an enormous impact on his career.

Aug 22, 2021, 3:30 pm ISTNewsIANS

Actor Tanuj Virwani, whose latest web series 'Cartel' is his fourth digital release this year, says the OTT platform has had an enormous impact on his career.

Talking about the same, Tanuj told IANS: "I feel the OTT has had an enormous impact on my career. I started off as a feature film actor. Fortunately OTT happened and I'm glad to be able to get onto this OTT brigade early on and work my way up the ladder."

"Also, I feel web shows give actors a lot more time to build their graph into the character and it's journey," he added.

Quizzed how it feels to have back-to-back releases on digital platforms, the actor replied: "It's definitely a lovely feeling, especially, in these troubled and uncertain times of Covid that we are living in, to have back-to-back releases. In fact, 'Cartel' would mark my fourth release of this year after 'Kamathipura', 'Murder Meri Jaan' and 'Tandoor'. I am very grateful for the acceptance of the audiences and my fans who have faith in me. I hope this continues."

Opening up on his latest action-drama series, the actor informed: "'Cartel' is a show about the politics of property, land mafia, Bollywood, cricket, glamour -- all these different industries that culminate in the underbelly of Mumbai and a crime syndicate family that is at the head of the table. It's an interesting hyper realistic, fictionalised account of things that happen in our city, in our own backyard."

Throwing light on his character in the series, Tanuj shared: "I play the character of Major Bhau a.k.a. Arjun Mhatre, he is a part of this crime syndicate family. An ex-Army man who has now come back and must steer the ship away from the shore and withstand the storm."

Sharing his experience of playing the character, the actor added: "It's a very introspective sort of character. There's a lot of fun playing it because it was against my mould as an actor and even as a personality. I guess that in itself is the biggest challenge how to achieve more by doing less. Also, I had to learn some hand-to-hand combat, knife training, gun training and a lot of running through the streets of the city. The physical preparation was quite a task!"

Also starring Supriya Pathak, Rithvik Dhanjani, Pranati Rai Prakash, Divya Agarwal, Jitendra Joshi and others, 'Cartel' streams on ALTBalaji and MX Player Gold.