Exclusive! Chandrachur Singh talks about why something like Maachis never happened again, embracing OTT and more

Chandrachur Singh, who is best remembered for his roles in Maachis and Josh, is now embracing OTT. After making a comeback in Aarya, the actor is now seen in Dil Bekaraar, the show based on Anuja Chauhan's book, Those Pricey Thakur Girls. The actor plays the role of a politician with negative shades in the series which takes the viewers back to the 1980s.

Ask the actor how did Dil Bekaraar happen to him and if it was while working on Aarya and he says, "After Aarya, I got an offer for Dil Bekaraar. At that time, it was titled Those Pricey Thakur Girls. The title was changed later. They offered me the role of an antagonist which I was excited to play because it gives me a chance to do something different from the image that is confining me into a particular style of performance. It was a different role to play, so I took it up."

Dil Bekaraar is set in the 80s. It has a mention of Doordarshan and newspapers. Thus, we asked the actor about his memories of the era. He ended up saying, "Excellent memories. I was growing up in those years. It was colour television coming to India. Whether it was India winning the World Cup, so many things happened in the country. It was the time of disco music, Kwality ice-cream, Thumbs Up. It wasn't consumeristic society at that time. It was simple. There was more outdoor activity one could do. There wasn't technological advancement like we have today. Now I can give an interview sitting so far away. So, it was a time of trunk calls, telegrams and letters. There were no mobile phones. It was a different era. Superb memories. It was a time of single screen theatres, buying popcorn, red chips with salt and red pepper. Everything was more reasonable."

On one side, Chandrachur is popular because of his role in Josh and on the other side, people who love art cinema, know him for Maachis. Ask him whether it was his attempt at balancing out between doing commercial and art films and the actor says, "I wanted to do good films. I don't believe commerce and art can be defined just by the genre of the film. Of course, Maachis is going to be very close to my heart and it is a very special film for the country and everyone. It was 25 years of Maachis. I also enjoyed working on Josh because I was working with Mansoor. I'm grateful to Gulzar ji and Rekha ji to give me an opportunity so I could work with better makers."

Maachis also happened to be the actor's debut and it won many accolades but that was about it. We never saw him in such a movie again. Ask him if people stopped offering him such roles or did he not believe the script would fall in place and thus, rejected the offers and the actor shares, "It was a combination of both factors. There was so much work happening at that time that I couldn't accomodate those projects. Sometimes it was the choices I made. Maybe I could have chosen otherwise. They were all good films and eventually, this is destiny's play. I can't even wish that I was in a project because it was my choice whether to be in or not be in a project. Back then, you would do two-three shifts for different movies. Now we have the concept of shooting a project at a stretch."

Chandrachur made a comeback in Aarya, which was one of the most-loved Indian web shows. That was also OTT and Dil Bekaraar is also OTT. Ask the actor whether he is ready to embrace the platform fully now and he says, "From the time I started working with Ram (Madhvani), I enjoyed working. It was no different than working in a film, for me. I didn't think that it was a different screen. As long as your product and creativity can reach across. Film is where I started with so I have a great respect for it. I love working in both the formats and look forward to working in both of them in the future."

The actor says that Aarya 2 is expected to release soon. Further, talking about his upcoming projects, the actor shared, "I'm not allowed to speak because of NDAs. There's some negotiations going on. We might shoot something in the future. There is a film I've done with Akshay Kumar. It is likely to release next year. Apart from Dil Bekaraar, I have other works which I will talk about when I can speak of it."