OTTplay Awards 2022: Know Your Winners: Best Director (Series) goes to Aarya 2

Ram Madhvani, Vinod Rawat and Kapil Sharma jointly won the Best Director (Series) award at the recently held OTTplay Awards 2022. They bagged the trophy for their work on Sushmita Sen’s web series, Aarya 2. The project, a brainchild of Ram, marked Sushmita’s comeback into acting and debut on OTT.

Here's all you need to know about Aarya 2 and the directors…

About the winner

Aarya 2 is the follow-up of the original season, Aarya season 1. It sees Aarya Sareen (Sushmita Sen) back in power. She perfectly balances family life while managing the drug mafia after her husband’s demise.

Director-producer Ram Madhvani came back to helm the second season of the show. The first season’s co-director Vinod Rawat also joined him this time. While Sandeep Modi had helmed the first season, this time he stepped down and Kapil Sharma took upon the task of directing the second season.

Accolades

Aarya has been one of the most-acclaimed Indian series. Sushmita’s performance, especially, has always been the talking point of the show. While she made her comeback to acting with the series, the directors are to be equally credited for brining out a side to her that the viewers had been waiting to see since a long time.

In fact, Ram Madhvani was in a way felicitated twice at OTTplay Awards and Conclave 2022 – the first ever pan Indian OTT Awards show. While he actually received the award for Aarya, his film Dhamaka was also awarded on the night. Kartik Aaryan took home the trophy for best actor in a film. Adapted from the South Korean film The Terror Live, Dhamaka (2021) was helmed by Ram.

Knowing Aarya a little better

Everything about Aarya is now powerful and almost perfect but the making was not so smooth. Sonam Kapoor’s Neerja director and a renowned ad filmmaker Ram Madhvani, who was the brainchild of the project, simply had one idea. He wanted to remake the Dutch drama series Penoza. He wished to turn the series into a feature film and brought many renowned actresses on board for the same.

In 2014, Ram roped in Kajol and Ajay Devgn backed the film. The movie was supposed to mark Kajol’s return to Bollywood and would have been (she made her comeback with Rohit Shetty’s Dilwale) if there weren’t financial issues. Thus, Kajol had to step out of the film and Ram went on to search other actresses for his project.

He approached the likes of Madhuri Dixit and Kareena Kapoor Khan but neither of them agreed to be a part of the film. Ram eventually went ahead with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in 2016. She was the very first choice for the project. Unfortunately though, the film was shelved just a month before it was going to go on floors.

Thus, Aarya, as we know it today, came into being. Ram adapted the series into a Hindi series in 2019 and brought Sushmita Sen on board. She, too, was making her acting comeback after 10 long years. Aarya also marked Sushmita’s debut on OTT.

The series was shot in Mumbai, Jaipur, Udaipur and Palgadh. Season 2 was also mainly shot in Jaipur, along with the other locations. Like Kartik mentioned while receiving his OTTplay Award, Ram Madhvani is known to shoot his shows in the 360 degree format and Aarya 2 was no exception.

A heartfelt gratitude, straight from the winner's heart

Ram stated, "Thank you everybody this OTTplay for making us feel nervous and special simultaneously. This is for season 2 so it's even more special, there is going to be a season 3 we will be back here or for 5 and 6 (laughing) but thank you to the entire team and Disney+Hotstar, to all my actors because without my actors we are nobody. Thank you so much."

Vinod eventually added, "Thank you to the jury, especially for me and Kaps (Kapil). He (Ram) gave us the opportunity, so thank you Ram, thank you very much. I always say thanks to my team. Thank you very much."

Kapil also spoke briefly and said, "Thank you so much. It takes a village. We're very honoured to be here but it's really up to the team, the writers, all the way to the editors, our camera people and the cast, of course, which is why we are here."

Upcoming films/web series/project

Ram Madhvani has announced that he would next project an underwater thriller called Dive. There has been no further update on the project. He also confirmed Aarya 3 and promised that there will be at least six seasons of the show. We know at least one project he will be locked on to for a long time.

Vinod is also likely to continue shooting for Aarya with Ram. Whether Kapil continues or not, is yet to be known. The two filmmakers have not announced any other project, not even their association with Aarya any longer.