Dushyant to direct story of ‘human statue’ in Lucknow

Feature film The Hundred Bucks director Dushyant Pratap Singh will be back in his home state shooting for his next OTT series in Lucknow soon

Feature film The Hundred Bucks director Dushyant Pratap Singh will be back in his home state shooting for his next OTT series in Lucknow soon.

Dushyant Pratap Singh on his recent visit to Lucknow. (HT Photo)

“I have shot in my hometown Agra and many other palaces. Earlier, in Lucknow I have done TV shows Kuch Kar Dikhayen, Dhamal Bemisal and some music videos as well but this will be my first big commercial project here. We have done the initial recce and will start the shoot in the first week of January. The series script has been penned by Dongri Ka Raja writer M Salim who originally hails from the city-outskirts.”

South Indian star Amit Tiwari plays the protagonist in the series. “It has an ensemble cast including Ali Asgar, Shahwar Ali, Aishwarya Raj Bhukani, Pooja Bist and some international artistes as it will be shot in Sri Lanka as well. We can’t reveal the title of the series but it’s a story of a ‘human statue’ from a small town in UP who gets stuck in Lanka.”

Singh says that he has been in production since Pathar Bejuban (2003). “It was shot in UP. Then I started with direction of TV shows and have done many reality and talk shows as well. The Hundred Bucks was my first directorial effort and was running in theatres when lockdown was clamped, and later, it did very well on OTT. It opened the gates for me as director.”

The filmmaker says that during the pandemic, he shot multiple projects that will come one after another. “I have directed Trahimam that we partially shot in Agra, Zindagi Shatranj Hai and two short films Dark Cheer starring Rajniesh Duggal and Ek Thi Rukma based on the story of Saadat Hasan Manto. Besides, I have produced and done supervision direction for Ajay Vardhan based on the story of Dr Ajay Arya and it has been directed by his wife Dr Pragati Agarwal.”

He feels now it is a perfect time for projects to reach the audience. “Cinema-goers have started coming to theatre and OTT reach is also at its prime so we are looking forward to doing many projects and bringing it to our audience,” adds Singh.