Actor Ashish Tyagi plays a witty, nerdy yet funny character in the recently released film Squad written and directed by Nilesh Sahay. The Meerut-born who made his debut in Rajkummar Rao starrer Bose, got noticed in Mardani 2 where he played the antagonist. The actor, who enjoys reprising challenging characters on the screen, talks about playing the parallel lead Girish in Squad and why OTT is the best medium of entertainment, now. Excerpts:
Squad must have been an exciting project for you. How was the overall experience of being a part of an action-packed project?
It was a great experience. We faced a lot of challenges like harsh weather, shooting post-pandemic, travelling through different time zones but on the positive side, we got to work alongside an amazing international cast and crew. The country we were shooting in was quite surreal and despite the harsh weather, we were able to pull off our sequences.
Tell us about your character here and were there any challenges?
Girish is a guy who is witty, techy, looks nerdy, intelligent and is also a bit funny in a weird way. He is the one who wants to live a simple life and mostly on his office desk and definitely wants to be miles away from trouble. However, his team often drags him to complexly dangerous situations. Now whether he is able to help or land his team in further problems, for that you will have to watch the action-packed thriller. As far as challenges, I had to work hard for this as it is exactly the opposite of me and whenever you get such character which is very far from your real personality you always face difficulties.
Since the shoot began before COVID-19 outbreak, the makers would have planned a theatrical release. Now that it has been released on an OTT platform, does it change anything?
I think things have changed a lot after OTT. We have more audience on OTT as compared to theatres. It has become easier for people who don’t want to go out of their comfort zone to watch a film. Theatre has its own charm but yeah if we are concerned about the reach as it doesn’t have any big star cast, I think OTT is the best.
Are you a fan of the thriller genre in real life?
I love thrillers. I like David Fincher's thrillers and then there is Gone Girl, Fight Club and so many. And I should mention Scorsese's Shutter Island.