Scam 1992 Gets Singular Honour Of Being The Only Indian Series In IMDb’s List Of All-Time Favourites

 It is  time  to applaud Applause Entertainment. Take  a  bow, you Scamsters!  The  team of  2020’s Harshad Mehta  bio-series Scam 1992 now  have even more reason to be proud. They have  just achieved what no other series or television  show from India  has.The highly-rated IMDb has curated a list  of the most popular  webseries and television serials  of  all times. The  list  which contains 163 titles  from across the world has  only one  Indian  entry. Applause  Entertainment’s  Scam 1992: Harshad Mehta  Story  directed  by  Hansal Mehta  has made it into  the  coveted  list  as one of  the most watched series  from across the world,

  Pratik Gandhi  who  played  the   eponymous  role  said,  “We  knew we were  doing  a  sincere job of it. But we  could  never  guess  it would go this  far.My  biggest reason for  accepting the  role  of Harshad  Mehta  was director Hansal  Mehta  .My producers Applause Entertainment and Sameer Nair  were godsent.I  love playing  real-life characters . I’ve played  quite  a  number  of them on stage  including Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It’s always a challenge to  portray a  real-life character specially one as much in the public domain as Harshad Mehta.”

There were lots of layers  to  Harshad Mehta’s   character which Pratik got attracted to. “I like  playing characters with complex human  traits. Also, this is  the biggest project that I’ve done in my life. All these  reasons were  more than enough incentive to  do  the  project.”

  Pratik  says he did a  lot  of research  on  Harshad  Mehta.  “I was  provided  with  a  lot of  material. I also  did my own research.  There were some videos of Harshad which I studied. There is  also an informative  interview of Harshad with  legendary journalist  Pritish Nandy. The script in itself  provided  a detailed document  on the character. All this , plus multiple discussions with the  writers and  directors  helped me  a lot.”

Pratik  undertook a  whole  regime  of physical  preparation to play Harshad. “When I first  met director Hansal Mehta  he told me I’m too lean and thin to play Harshad Mehta. I had to gain 18 kilos before we  started  shooting.I gorged on all the Gujarati goodies that  I earlier avoided. By the  time  we started shooting I had a huge belly and  a lot  of fat on  my face. And of course the trademark Harshad Mehta moustache”

  He  took a conscious  decision to not  look like Harshad  “Looking like  the  real-life character certainly makes  the actor’s job easier specially when  it is someone as well-known as  Harshad Mehta.He loved being in the limelight.One of his photographs with  his Lexus is still  popular.While making the series on Harshad we  took a conscious  decision that  I won’t try to look  like the real  Harshad. Rather I’d focus  on his behavior  attitude and personality, be it his helplessness initially, confidence, then over-confidence to the  extent of letting his arrogance and ego get the better  of his judgment.  Hansal  was clear about not caricaturing Harshad ,but rather  imbibing his characteristics into my personality.”

  Being  a Gujarati helped Pratik understand Harshad better. “It  helped me to  understand his  thought process, his dreams  , knack for  understanding money matters, the entrepreneurial  spirit . And that  determination  to be self-employed. That’s a Gujarati trait. Though I must confess that I come  from  a family of educationists. No one  in  my family is an  entrepreneur.”