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Slice of life with a side of dark humour
The multi-talented director, Sarang Sathaye, intends to make more Marathi content that is ‘globally relevant’
There is no doubt that his behind the camera skills are great, but people still recognise Sarang Sathaye as a stand-up comedian and an actor. He has featured in small yet memorable characters in films as well as web series space.
Currently, Sarang is in the news for appearing in and directing a web series titled, Pandu. The show highlights the life of a policeman through his professional and personal journey. Direction is not a new thing for Sarang, as he has been doing theatre for 14 years where he has directed plays and has directed and assisted on a few films too. “Storytelling, as a structure, is not new to me. As a filmmaker, it has always been an essential part of my work. Also, I have always wanted to make Marathi content that can be globally consumed. Just how Money Heist and Narcos are popular series globally, similarly we want to make shows that transcends beyond Maharashtra. We started with making simple and relatable videos to build an audience and now we are on to making shows like Pandu,” says Sarang.
He adds that his first choice has always been direction, and acting has just been a very “pleasant distraction”. As a creator, he says that the biggest difference while making a short series format compared to other formats is that you have a chance to indulge the audience and keep them engaged too. He says, “Other formats have to be as crisp as possible. Here, we don’t have such rules. For example, the fourth episode titled Melancholy, is just a period of silence for the first few minutes. We had not explored something like this before.”
The show has been receiving a lot of feedback for its treatment of dark humour and Sarang says that he is overwhelmed by it. “We are not making any statements in terms of ideologies or perspectives. We are just showing facts as real as they are. Like a poor man, running a fake shoe brand store in Dharavi (Mumbai) will not be concerned with child labour or work ethics. Also, a policeman may accept bribes but at the same time, he helps a pickpocketer pursue an education. It is a slice of life show with a lot of dark humour,” he adds.
Sarang says that the credit to the perfect balance of jokes, dark humour and reality goes to Gaurav Pawar and Noel Cordeiro. He says, “We have around 20 writers and stand-up comedians in BhaDiPa (Bharatiya Digital Party). Gaurav is one of them. His parents are retired cops and in his first set, his character was similar. We liked the perspective and we discussed how we can turn it into a series. He had four to five topics in mind. Anusha and I helped him with the writing format, and then, directed it as well.”
On his BhaDiPa co-founders — Anusha Nandakumar and Paula McGlynn, he shares that they have a weird rapport. “Anusha has more experience than both of us put together. Paula introduced me to the long format of plays. They influence me in my writing and production. When it comes to designing the show, the vision etc., both of them handle it, while I look after the casting, writing and actor management,” he concludes.
