The first instalment in the popular action franchise, Commando, had released a decade ago. And the one factor that remained constant across the three Commando films was actor Vidyut Jammwal, who played the lead character, Captain Karanvir Singh Dogra. But the film franchise has been turned into a digital series now and instead of Jammwal, it features a debutant actor, Prem Parrijaa, in the lead role.
In an exclusive conversation with News18, director-producer of Commando, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, and leading lady Adah Sharma spill the beans on having a newbie headlining the series. “If you want to create a new commando, then you’ve to forget Vidyut. If I cannot forget Vidyut, I cannot create Prem or any new commando, who’s totally different than Vidyut,” he tells us.
Shah is quick to add that his decision to cast Parrijaa doesn’t stem from any kind of animosity with Jammwal. “But that doesn’t mean that I’ve any problem with him or that we aren’t cool with each other,” he says. However, he reveals that shooting for the series required them to ‘forget’ Jammwal in a way. “Having said that, when I’m creating a commando, I’ve to try and create a completely new guy and for those few months of shoot, we all have to forget that this was ever done by Vidyut. That’s the only way to go forward, at least for me,” he remarks.
Sharma, on the other hand, says that didn’t really miss working with Jammwal, who’s also a friend apart from being her co-star in Commando 2 and Commando 3. “If you miss someone, you can pick up the phone and talk to them,” she states.
The 31-year-old rather chose to enjoy the launch of a new face than lament over not being able to share screen space with Jammwal again. “We’ve a new boy who’s making his debut. This is the first time that people are going to see him on the screen. He’s doing some great action in the show. I don’t think I want to make this appear small by saying, ‘Oh, I miss my friend on set!’ That way, we’ll be ruining the whole positivity surrounding a new boy being launched. It’s so nice that there are so many commandoes,” she shares.
Shah further points out that it is the change in the medium that also led him to find a new face for Commando. “I wanted to bring in a very different kind of Commando for the OTT world. When you watch the show, you’ll realise that it’s quite different from the films. But at the core, it’s all about protecting your nation and fighting for your people and for the right causes. So, the way it has been treated is very different. That’s why there was a need for us to get a new person to play Commando,” he elaborates.
Quiz Shah about the decision to turn the franchise into a web show and he explains, “We’ve been doing Commando for ten years now. In these ten years, OTT has emerged as a very important player in the entertainment world and it deals with a very different kind of audience. I wanted to be the first one to experiment with a successful film franchise and turn it into an OTT franchise.”
Commando premiered on August 11 and is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
