BENGALURU: With two web series in the kitty and a feature film in the pipeline, producerwriter- actor Saad Khan is on a roll. Chattis Aur Maina, a web series he conceptualised with Saishree D, a writer from his team, released on Disney Hotstar on May 28. Another one, horror series Ankahi Ansuni will be out by June-end, also on Hotstar. Known for coming up with comedy plot lines like Humble Politician Nograj (which he wrote and directed), improv shows and skits on social media, Khan is a man with many talents.
For him, it is about making different characters, which he describes as “being like a kid in a toy store”. Explaining, he says the concepts of both his new series, are completely different. Chattis Aur Maina, which stars Sandeepa Dhar and Vikram Singh Chauhan, is a story about an event dancer and a simple man who falls in love with her. “In 2012, I went to Uttar Pradesh to attend a wedding and got introduced to nachaniya culture there. Even though there are so many stories around them, I wanted to do a romantic comedy, which shows them in a light-hearted manner,” says Khan.
He is also equally excited about Ankahi Ansuni, starring Paresh Pahuja and Vibha Anand. A huge fan of horror and crime thrillers, Khan took to creating the series like a fish to water. While Khan has been busy creating OTT content of late, he started his career with fulllength feature films. However, Khan loves challenges and trying his hand at creating shorter duration content wasn’t too difficult. “Luckily for me, when I was in film school I also got trained in writing episodes for television.
Writing short-format is nothing but that. I am not saying I have perfected the format, but I know the process,” says Khan. He has also been learning Telugu for the past month to write for a Telugu full-length feature film. Initially, he envisioned a theatrical release for the film, but that it is subject to change given the situation. Lockdowns - both last year as well as this year - saw a rise in viewership for OTT platforms.
Asked if things that go up will come down as audiences reach a saturation, Khan replies: “There is a market for everything and everyone. As a content creator who is used to visual stuff, there are days where I have consumed podcasts for six hours. Today, what will become passe is completely unpredictable,” says Khan. But for time being, Khan is really happy living in the moment and being busy writing new stories.