 Let's start with Ivar itself. What is Ivar all about and how did you get started on the journey? Both from the actor's perspective and the direction. Well, Ivar was a story which started out in 2013 and both Vijay Sir and myself were just kind of coming out of a personal accident in a situation. And the seat for Ivar started with that and essentially it was wanting to talk about basic small crimes and things which go unnoticed. I mean you have a lot of coverage for large crimes and things and all that but day to day things which happen and how all of that interconnects into much bigger ploys and much bigger plays. And how that affects us as a community, as a country and as a humanity as a whole. So we wanted to explore that and to do that we founded Ivar and from there the journey started. We developed a small pilot pitch in 2013 and we initially wanted to pitch it as a TV show and then make it as a film. But it took us this much time for it to mature and come into becoming an OTT show. Which is interesting because then it probably worked out for the best because you got Sony Live on board. How did that happen? Well we are really really happy because when I was a kid Sony was the first camcorder I started to film something with. So when we are here on stage and Sony Live is launching our show it's something which is giving us a lot of goosebumps and a lot of happiness. It's a real dream to work with Sony. So like I said the journey has been long but it's been worth it because finally we are here and we are launching on Sony. So this is also your first digital outing and I know Sanjana has some experience there but Ashwin I am not sure. I have done a web series before. You have. So digital is still a new platform for all of us, right? So how has this experience been for you guys? See the web thing, the web platform is definitely different from movies in the sense. There are so many different considerations when it comes to, especially when you consider the Tamil Nadu market. When you make movies, right? The budgets are at a certain level. You have to cover a spectrum of audiences, what different people want. So then you have to have like a romantic portion then you need to have comedy for the sake of it. When it comes to digital space I feel like you don't have to pander to that extent. You can let the story just unfold. And you're also, again it's a very episodic, it's not a TV serial but you have to provide the quality of a film. So that really is a challenge because essentially you're shooting two films, the length of two films on a certain budget. And you have to keep in mind as actors, obviously sometimes in a certain episode I last Harsha. Okay at this point, is this in the beginning of episode one? Is this the opening? Is this the cliffhanger of the episode? Or how do you want it? Or at this point is my character? Has he already done all this stuff? Has this happened to him? So it's a lot more sort of things that you have to keep in track and stuff. But I think it's given filmmakers a lot of freedom because you don't have to go according to formula necessarily. For you it's equally interesting because you've done entertainment, the traditional forms as well as digital. So you've tried different things there, so different platforms and stuff. How different was OTT as a platform and also what is the sort of freedom that OTT gives you which you perhaps couldn't find in traditional entertainment? I think OTT keeps it very realistic and very minimalistic and yet to the point. And we have some kind of a space of freedom when it comes to the length of the show. Because like Ashwin rightly said it takes you two or three films to put across an entire ten episodes. So the director has the freedom to explain the script in depth wherein when it comes to a feature or when it comes to other modems, they have to cut it really short and try to convey everything in one film which is like a two hour fifteen minutes. And a lot of the creativity gets cut or a lot of the important points which a director wants to say is not possible in two hours and fifteen minutes. A lot of the characters get sacrificed and what not. So everybody is getting their own space and obviously OTT is catering to a whole lot of theatre artists as well who are definitely performance oriented people. And this is my first outing in the OTT platforms. I've been working on shows which are both on TV and on OTT but when it comes to a pure OTT show, this is my first show and I think it's a wonderful opportunity because it's, you know, entire with Sony and I think we look at it with great great excitement. Adding to what she said, I think it's definitely definitely a little bit more democratic than films because films is a certain dynasty nepotism market that is required versus in this thing. A lot of our supporting cast now are people from social media, theatre and stuff like that. Performers, pure performers are getting a lot of opportunities explored. The advantage is you can have a wild mix of, you know, very good actors from theatre, from people who have been founded on the digital web space. Then you've got film theatre actors, film artists and you've got like a mix of people you can go from. And this kind of thing, it can really make people stars and you're on people's phones. So the kind of penetration level which an OTT gives you is something which is completely new to humanity as such. I don't know when was the last time I precisely put the TV on to watch a TV show. I'm not putting anybody down or anything down or being very biased because I'm on the web now. But I've just downloaded all the content I want to see on my phone and I'm just seeing it on the run, on the go. Even when I'm going to sleep, the phone is on my face more than me being in the TV room or anything like that. And I'm just making sure I'm catching up on two, three episodes of whatever I'm watching. So that is the kind of an addiction it has created and it's just going to increase by the time and by the hour. Also the creative freedom you get, Harsha, in this, one is that it allows you to experiment a lot more and is it also perhaps a little easier to be true to the story itself because we all know of those infamous TV series which go on and on and on, which started off when we were kids then which are still running and so on, right? So that way does it give you better control over the story? A good story is a story. How you want to say it basically is how you want to say it. So you want to tell it in the length of a film, you say it as a film, you want to stretch it out into being that kind of mega series which runs for years, it runs. But OTT definitely presents a kind of flexibility, it presents a kind of, it gives you that width and breadth to expand on a story and expand on characters and really travel through a particular story and a journey. And I think in that sense, whether it's eight episodes or 15 episodes or whatever the space, so it's the number of episodes which the story demands, a platform like this it's very exciting for an audience to see the story as it was meant to be. So that way it is a little more easier perhaps to stay true to the story itself, right? Well, yeah, I guess, but see there are films where you are true to the film as well and TV series as well but this definitely is very exciting to tell stories in formats which are not too long and not too short. So it's whatever the story requires and if you can call that being true, then probably true in that sense. It's kind of a double-edged thing because on one hand, oh sorry, you want to talk? No, no. On one hand, see because it's your phone, like what she was saying, right? Sometimes you'll turn off the TV, I find I do this, I turn off the TV and I'm like decide to go to bed but then I'll go and lie in bed and I'll still be watching something on my phone. In a theater, if your content is boring, the audience a little bit, they'll kind of stay maybe because their car's stuck in the car parking and they can't get out or whatever they're like, I've paid for this. But when it's on a phone, they're just like I'm going to switch it off. So it can't outstay whether it's a scene or an episode, it's not easy because you still have to be gripping but maybe truer than in a movie you'll probably add a lot more diversions and distractions, songs. You know, okay, we've had some intense things, let's cut to a song and let the audience relax and give them a breather or comedy scenes or whatever. Does this also make it paradoxically then more challenging now for the filmmakers, for the traditional guys because they have greater competition from all of you. So do they have to really up their game? Well, yeah, definitely. We'd like to think so. Everybody has dropped their game right now, I think it's the survival of the fittest and you can even see the biggest stars in the country like Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar they have gotten into the web series space and the best thing about it is they give you a limited content and they make you wait for a span of three or four months and they have introduced this new term to us which is called binge watching. So there was nothing called binge watching when OTT platforms were not there and now there's something called binge watching and we all do it like binge watch and addictively watch. In the airport if I'm pulling my or pushing my trolley, in my handbag my phone is right there, I don't even look in front. So that is the kind of binge watching it has put us all into. So what's the response like from the audience and the consumers so far? It's been great. People have received the teaser very well and just increased no pressure on us. We have to tell a very good show. But we love taking on such challenges and that's what really creatively challenges us. When we got into making this show we wanted to give the best possible cinematic experience and give something which is fresh and new to an audience and something more than what a usual web series can do. And also we ideally want to break that barrier of this being regional content and this being national content and this being international content. For us we want to make a web series which can be viewed anywhere, anywhere across the world. So if you're able to achieve that kind of penetration into market then it's great. Then you can say we've arrived. Either the content gets dubbed in other languages or it gets subtitled. So it does go further than the state in which it was made. The one thing about the teaser that people have said is that visually and design wise and sound design, the music, the quality is very cinematic. They keep using that word cinematic because people associate something on your cell phone and the challenge early is when your content is being seen something as small as a cell phone or a TV screen you have to work that much harder to make it more cinematic. Versus a theatre screen you can just have a regular sequence, comedy sequence and it'll automatically seem bigger because it's a huge screen and people are looking at it like that. And a lot of focus would have to now be on the quality of the story and the authenticity of the performances itself. You can't just make do with good editing or just... Everybody would have to pull themselves there. No, any good show has to have very good actors and a very good storyline. What are the stories and what are the shows which really stick to your head? What really motivates you to turn on to the next episode or watch it only if you're invested in it emotionally or if you're able to find a connect. So actors who are able to bring those kind of good performances directors who are able to tell those kind of good stories it's only those things which really, really stick in your head. And that's the unicorn, that's what we all have to try and go for and that's what we're trying. That's the unicorn, you said it. Also lastly, Harsha, this is mainly for you but of course I would love to get your comments as well. Hindi OTT has really... We all know that it's really sort of taken off in a very, very big way whereas when it comes to regional OTTs and especially for a country like India with so many different languages and we have such diverse cultures you go to Gujarat and the food and the culture and the way of life is so different from what it is like when you're in Chennai. So what do you think is the roadmap for that kind of regional OTT in the next coming years, Manish? Well, Bombay is the gateway of India, whatever content comes it has to come to Hindi first, Hindi is our national language and then we come down south. But that doesn't mean there's a dearth of talent or doesn't mean there's a dearth of things to do in other languages. So I'm sure like Tamil, there is Telugu, there is Uriya, there is Gujarati there's so many languages, we are such a diverse country and you've got talent everywhere. So what's the roadmap? That's the question. The roadmap is, it's like a spider's web, you just expand and then you go and you have all 26 languages across the world so it's beautiful to be part of a diverse country which has so much content from this country can go all over the place. So the roadmap is reaching international waters and wherever humans live to watch content. I think films like Bahubali have done it in the past. They just put the Telugu and Tamil cinema back on the India's map in competition and in power with a lot of the filmmakers in Bombay. When Karan Johar was asked, will you be able to make a film like Bahubali, he said, no, I'm not capable of it. So that's the kind of filmmakers we have, that's the kind of strong scripting we have but I think we just have to crack it with something better than the sacred games and then we'll be on the map. And in regards to regionalism, the more specific you make something the more universal it becomes. So everyone, there's different cuisines, there's different languages but everyone has the same core emotions. So sometimes new pandas make things very generic and say like, this is how the entire audience, that's when they'll be able to get it. No, I think sometimes when you make something very specific you can be like, no, I relate to that emotion or that type of feeling when a character from that state eats or whatever it is. So I think that's the key to sort of being specific but having that thing open up. Thank you so much for a very insightful discussion and many, many congratulations for Ivar and good luck as well. Thank you so much, it's a pleasure being here.