MUMBAI: Apharan 2, starring Arunoday Singh, Nidhi Singh, Saanand Verma in pivotal roles was recently launched. The first season of the series was released in December 2018, and since then the audiences have been waiting for its next season. The second season of the series has been shot in the beautiful locales of Serbia and sees the handsome cop Rudra (played by Arunoday Singh) juggling between his professional duties and personal life which seems to be at stake.   Tellychakkar spoke to Santosh Singh, the director of the series to know more about his experience and journey.  

Speaking about helming the series Santosh shared :  

Can you take us through your journey as a director, how did it begin?

My journey has been really long in the entertainment industry. My journey started as an assisstant direcor with shows like Kumkum and Remix. Later with movie Drona which was directed by Remix director Goldie Behl, he gave me a chance to venture into movies. I assissted him on the movie Drona then Wake Up Sid, Brothers, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and eventually Brahamastra came my way on which I was an assisstant director as well. This experience truly paved the way for me to venture into direction. Along the way, I got an opportunity with Broken But Beautiful and then I directed Fitrat and Apharan 2. It has been a fruitful and exciting journey.

As Apharan 2 has released, what has been your reaction once it was on-air and before it was going to release?

Before the release, there was a lot of excitement and nervousness it was like waiting for your school results to come out. I could feel it. I remember on the day when the teaser was to come out I was sitting inside the Golden temple hoping and praying that all the hard work we all have done for the past 2 years on apharan pays off. And it did!  Post release, the palpitations have gone and now there is only a feeling of excitement.

Apharan Season 1 was roaring success.  Did that build a pressure on you as a director to make season 2 bigger and grander?

Season 1 of Apharan was loved by the audience. It became a cult show. I remember watching season 1 and was totally blown by it. I wanted to do work on something like Apharan and look at the circle of life that I directed the season 2 of Apharan. It was a surreal moment for me. Everyone in season 1 has set the bar really high and directing the second season was a big responsibility, I would not call it pressure but I definitely had to take it several notches higher this season while keeping the soul of apaharan intact. No pressure but only responsibility to keep the bar high.

Which scenes for you have been the most difficult to shoot in Apharan 2 as it now has an international backdrop?

The whole shoot was very challenging for the simple reason that it was a complicated script and covid only made matters worse for us. With an international backdrop in picture, it was even more difficult because we had limited budgets and to pull this off in that kind of a budget was no less than a feat. I do need to thank my producer Mr Tanveer Bookwala who stood by me like a rock throughout the filming process. Talking about scenes, the entire Serbia shoot was difficult and challenging but it was also a lot of fun!

If you can give us a sneak peak of your upcoming shows?

Next on the list for me is to sit back and relax for a bit. I’m also looking at several scripts, and want to now give audience something unique and interesting. Hopefully something different comes my way and I can showcase something amazing to the audience again.

Apharan 2 is currently streaming on voot.