Tanuj Virwani is one happy man. Even though he is suffering from multiple fractures in his hand due to an accident he met with while playing cricket, the actor stays on to be a bundle of energy that he is. After featuring as an anti-hero in the web series Poison earlier this year, he would be returning as ave cricketer Vayu Raghavan in the second season of Inside Edge that fetched him quite some fame a couple of years back.
“Well, that said, you can’t just rely on past glories,” smiles Tanuj, “Sometimes, such kind of a character can become boring as well when he does the same thing over and over again. In the first season it was unique to see that I-Don’t -Care-A-Damn attitude that I carried as Vayu Raghavan. At the end of the day, this man was an accidental hero. He had an aura around him even though he was immature. Later as the series progressed, he becomes a little more responsible. This is now continuing in the second season. There are a lot of googlies being thrown in his direction. That’s what makes this character tricky. Now how to reach the best possible version of the character is what I find the most exciting,” says Tanuj who is keen to check out how audiences respond to the new shades that have been brought into his character.
As is always the case, it’s the second season which turns out to be a deciding factor about how the series will progress in future.
“The thing is that in any successful show, the first season is presented to the audiences for them to get the world and the characters. You need to get the pitch of the performances right. You need to decide whether it has to be realistic, partially inspired, fictional or something else. After that it’s the second season which turns out to be the acid test,” says Tanuj.
He has a good rationale for saying that.
“See, we have to now prove to the audiences that the first season was not a fluke,” he smiles, “We can’t just keep talking about gambling or match fixing. We have done that already in the first season. Of course it is a part of the story but we have gone beyond that this time around. The writers this time have taken it to places which I think is rather interesting.”
On a parting note, Tanuj promises, “Trust us, we are going to surprise you in a big way. You won’t be able to predict the twists and the turns.”