A little show that became a sensation

Little Things premiered on YouTube in 2016 as a sugar-coated romcom, and soon, attained incredible popularity among the youth. Five years later, the show is now on Netflix and has the reputation of being India's longest-running series. As the curtains finally came down with the fourth and final season, here are the show's two stars, Dhruv Sehgal and Mithila Palkar, discussing its success:

Excerpts:

It has been quite a journey for Little Things from YouTube to Netflix…

Dhruv (D): We have received so much love over this period. Right now, we just feel grateful to have experienced something so gratifying for so long. We feel humbled that people still have that love for us.

Did the migration to Netflix demand any changes in writing or making?

D: Of course, the making got scaled up. With better cameras and production values, the show looks more beautiful and pleasing. But in terms of writing, nothing much changed.

Dhruv was a part of the writing team, but Mithila, are you used to giving inputs as well?

Mithila (M): I'm a huge fan of Dhruv's writing. A lot of Little Things is his writing and then, the rest of us add flavour. During the first season, Kavya sounded a lot like Dhruv. But later on, he let me have the liberty to make Kavya my own. This made it easy for me to get into character.

How much of Dhruv and Mithila are there in Momo and Kavu?

D: I relate and resonate with both characters. I wouldn't say they are exactly like us, but there's a fair bit of influence. The idea is also to make it life-like and make them seem like real people.

M: The relatability with Kavya grew over the years for me. I was new to her during the first season, but the familiarity grew every season.

The plan was to shoot the 4^th season in Finland, as we understand, but the pandemic had other plans…

D: Yes, but luckily, the change made it more fun. We love Kerala and are great fans of the people and the food there. Everybody in the crew knew where to get their biryani, parotta, and beef roast. Before we went to Kerala, some of us did regret being unable to get to Finland, but once we reached Kerala, nobody spoke about it.

How did you react to the realisation that this was the final season?

M: It was a bittersweet feeling. Of course, it is going to be sad to leave everything behind, but we just need to remember to be grateful for the love we have received over the years. We would rather leave it on this note than drag it around till the audience gets fatigued. Also, we did not want to reach a point of boredom even for ourselves.

D: It's the same for me. As actors and creators, you want to be excited and stimulated with work. You don't want to approach it with a sense of fatigue or repetition.

Given an option, would you guys love to come back as Dhruv and Kavya, maybe a few years later…

D: I guess, yeah...

M: We will know that in a few years. For us, it has still not sunk in that the show has come to an end. We never thought about a second season when we first shot it. So, we don't know what awaits us in the future.