Chandan Roy Sanyal’s recent release on MX PLayer, ‘Aashram 3’ has been getting a lot of praise from the audience. He plays the role of Baba Nirala (Bobby Deol)’s right-hand man, Bhopa who takes care of the Aashram and the illegal activities associated.
Chandan begins by talking about the success of the third season and how Bhopa has been appreciated well by people even after it is a negative character. “Well, the show is doing extremely well! Apparently, I am told that it’s doing even better than seasons 1 and 2. My friends are sending me all these memes that people are making on Bhopa and he has really struck a chord with the common man of the country. Most of the people I meet on the street, are all watching it. And yes a lot of people are also scared of Bhopa. He is a dangerous man. And I am not at all like him (laughs),” he says.
Talking about the upcoming season (Season 4), he reveals that it is going to be one surprising ride, “If you have seen the first glimpse of Aashram 4, then you know there are some images which show us that a lot of exposing is being done. There is something cooking that is very very unexpected because Bhopa and Baba, this friction is rising and there is Pammi who jumps into the melting pot and is trying to move these guys away. So it’ll be a ‘teekhi khichdi’ in season 4. And it’ll be completely unexpected because you expect Bhopa to be in a certain way, that will change in Season 4. And I don’t think it has happened too many times that a show has gone from 1 to 2 to 3, going to 4 and people are already waiting for 4 which is a year away and we will shoot it this year end because we always shoot in winters and I can tell you, I am not lying, it’ll go a notch higher. What will happen there will be unbelievable for anyone.”
On asking about when can we expect the next season to arrive, he says, “Somewhere around the same time next year, around April-May. Because making a show takes a lot of time. If you see a film script, it is 80-90 pages but the script of a show goes to almost 400-500 pages and they are shot over 100-150 days and then it gets edited so it takes almost 8 months to create it.”
Aashram is available for free on MX Player, and Chandan feels it could be one of the reasons why the show has had a great reach. “I think it is. People are watching it for free and everyone can watch it. Like for other platforms, there is some amount of subscription that you have to pay and they still could be expensive for a lot of normal Indian people in villages and small towns. Like somebody is going to school, or an old person who is dependent on family or housewives who don’t have a source of income. So everybody has access to that content. You don’t have to pay a subscription to buy and that has probably opened up the whole viewership thing for Aashram by MX.”
