Collin D’Cunha has reached that pinch-me moment in his life when all his dreams seem to be coming true after Call Me Bae started streaming on Amazon Prime. He shares the magic of his destiny .
To have your series instantaneously become a talking point… what does it mean to you?
It’s been an extremely fulfilling journey to work with very driven, like-minded creative people like my writers Ishita Moitra, Samina Motlekar, Rohit Nair and Somen Mishra. I feel very lucky to be able to debut with a series that’s headlined by Ananya Panday and receive the full support of Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta and team Amazon. It’s truly a “pinch me” moment.
To navigate multiple tracks and episodes and such a vast cast, couldn’t be easy?
Yeah, the long-format series are challenging in their own way! But it’s extremely gratifying as a director to be able to explore multiple tracks and work with an ensemble cast which brings the characters to life. Here I have to acknowledge my HODs for making this a smooth ride, with very few hiccups as all of us were working together towards a collective creative goal.
Were all these actors your first choice?
Thanks to our casting director, Panchami Ghavri, we were able too go through multiple rounds of auditions. I was always sure that I wanted every character to be distinct from the other. For example, after we cast Agastya (Vihaan Samat), I realised I wanted Neel (Gurfateh Pirzada) to be the polar opposite in all ways. So yeah, even if they were not my first choice, they were all definitely my best!
How were you so sure Ananya Pandey could pull up such complex role?
I was very confident that she will be able to pull off this character. She is one of the most hardworking actors I have ever worked with. She didn’t know just her dialogues, she knew the entire script verbatim. She’s taken on the role of Bae and delivered more than what I could’ve imagined.
What drew you into Bae?
This character’s arc is what actually drew me into the show. We live in a social media age, where people go viral overnight. But what makes Bae interesting is that she uses her fame for empowerment.
Season 2 of Call Me Bae?
We’re all hoping that this season is liked and is a success! And I’m very interested to see where Bae’s journey takes her.
What next from you?
I have a series that I have co-directed, produced by Dharmatic and Amazon Prime. Excited for it to come out sometime next year.