One of the most unexpected highlights in the realm of OTT this year has been The Freelancer. While its initial release in September consisted of four episodes, the remaining episodes are set to stream as part of The Freelancer: The Conclusion.
In celebration of the show's release and to recount their filming experience, the series' team convened at a press event in Mumbai. The event was also attended by the Free Press Journal team.
Present at the meet were actors Mohit Raina, Anupam Kher, Kashmira Pardeshi, director Bhav Dhulia, showrunner Neeraj Pandey and Shital Bhatia and Disney+Hotstar head Gaurav Banerjee.
Although Mohit has received praise for his acting since the beginning of his career, it is his compelling portrayal of the vulnerable yet dangerous agent Avinash Kamath that has garnered even more acclaim and fan appreciation.
When asked to reflect upon the appreciation received, Mohit shares, “The journey has been very exciting for a lot of reasons. The first and foremost being Neeraj Pandey, for the creator that he is. I have always been a fan of Neeraj sir's work. So when he called me and told me that he's making a series inspired by this book A Ticket To Syria, the journey began since then and it has been around 3-4 years since we've been associated with this project. Of course, it's been filled with a lot of ups and downs. But, the journey of Avinash Kamath has been great, despite him being an underdog."
Known for his inclination towards narrating stories with geopolitical references, Neeraj divulges the secret behind successfully cracking the code. "I'm not sure I know how do I do it. But I think a lot of it relies on the response that we get from our audiences. They are the ones who encourage us that we need to push the envelope a little more to work harder and not to repeat ourselves. So I would definitely assign the credit of my success to my audiences. They are the ones who have loved our work over the years and who have checked on our quality all the time."
For Kher, who has been a regular feature in all of Neeraj's work, how does the seasoned actor look at their long-standing association. "When I work with Neeraj, I leave myself to his vision. It makes my job easier. As we've gathered on a Wednesday today (pun intended), so since A Wednesday, we've been silently challenging one another. And when words like ‘stalwart’ and ‘veteran’ are used for me, it makes me want to work harder. I want to continue working till I'm 90 because my competition is with myself."
The Freelancer: The Conclusion streams starting from December 15.
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