Pratik Gandhi’s Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story was released in 2020 with massive success since its release. The series received multiple acclaims and recognition and won 11 awards in different categories, including Best Drama Series and Best Director. But director Hansal Mehta recently revealed that the show was rejected by every OTT platform.
In an exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla, Hansal Mehta revealed that every OTT platform had initially rejected the show. He recalled that when SonyLiv agreed to take their show, he didn’t feel happy about it. Interestingly, the show was directed by Hansal Mehta, who has spoken about the process of making successful series. He revealed that Scam was signed in 2017 and took nearly 3-4 years to write. However, the shooting began in August 2019 and was released within a year.
He explained in the same interview, “Woh pressure tha matlab lockdown tha and SonyLiv said this is the opportunity ke jaldi nikalo Sony Liv bhi naya platform tha I mean Scam Scam ka kamaal tha. Humne banaya show bahut conviction ke saath banaya, and we thought ki ye show koi bhi le lega humne kamaal show banaya hai ye ek bhi platform ne liya nai.
Continuing his thought, he said, “But vo again see, I would say long form mein UTV moment is Applause, you know Applause and Sameer Nair are that UTV moment. Sameer has the foresight matlab he could have insisted on anybody to do Scam and paise dete vo aa jate, but I went with Mukesh(Chhabra). I said mujhe ye Pratik Gandhi karke actor ko lena hai, he didn’t flinch aur bola yes, maine music play kiya Achint ka. We had just gotten a scratch. He (Sameer) heard this is the music, he just took it.”
“You know newcomer koi vo nahin no baggage instinct sharp creative instinct – sharp creative instinct risk taking ka jo hai na risk taking is not a planned activity. It is in instincts, you have to trust your own instincts. He said, let’s go for it, and matlab that’s why Scam became what it was,” he added.
“Matlab then he took a punt when mujhe May 31, 2020, lockdown mein mujhe SonyLiv se phone aaya ki humein aapka photo chahiye. maine kaha aapko kyun chahiye? To unhone kaha ki nahin vo aapka show aa raha hai na hamare to main Sameer ko message kiya Sameer hamara show SonyLiv pe jaa raha hai to then Sameer and I said this very upsetting ki humne itni mehnat ki ye show ye platform to koi dekhta hi nai hai to,” he further remarked.
Sameer Nair responded to him that this is the only platform that would truly give our show love and care. He also said that they’d treat it well. Mehta then asserted, “we thought, what’s the point if no one ends up watching it? So our morale was very low, but then I had to lift my team’s morale.”
“My team’s morale had dropped, so I had to lift their morale ye dekho bahut acha jo Sameer ne mujhe kaha maine wahi baat sabko kahi, and we somehow lifted our morale completed the show on time, and rest is history. I think we made long-form history,” he added.