Although the Tamil entertainment industry has not yet fully explored the storytelling potential of the web series format, newcomer Harish Hero has dared a radical experiment, even by international standards. His debut work, Thadayam, starring veteran actor Pandiyarajan, will be a vertical microseries of 60 episodes, each one minute in length. Thadayam, produced by High Dreamers, will premiere on the Bullet App, in partnership with Zee5.
Harish begins by saying that the veteran actor-filmmaker was both confused and interested in the project. "There was some convincing that had to be done. When Tamil content consumers and creators were still coming to grips with how the series format works, it was natural for Pandiyarajan sir to have these doubts," says Harish, who believes that Pandiyarajan is on a quest to update himself with the popular filmmaking techniques and style of the day. "Pandiyarajan sir said he wants to be a part of the next generation of filmmaking. Honestly, considering his experience, we didn't expect him to have such a childlike curiosity. We gave him a movie-like pitch and explained how we are planning to shoot. We shot 20 episodes a day for three days."
An investigative thriller, Thadayam is a chamber drama centred on a murder in a hill station. Pandiyarajan, a retired constable, begins probing the suspects as everyone is forced to stay put due to rain and landslides. Talking about the challenges of filming, Harish says lighting and framing were tricky. "There are over 10 people in the frame. Positioning them and keeping a wide frame in a vertical view was challenging. This is one of the genres loved by people, and most of us are also reel-watchers, which are vertical. So I wanted to combine the two."
While sharing that he is trying something new with the series, Harish says he doesn't really want to depart from the web-series format of writing either. "One minute is typically the duration of an advertisement. We took it as a challenge to make sure there is no dearth of cliffhangers," he says, adding that the focus is definitely on the cliffhangers to engage the audience and retain them. "All the suspects have a history with the victim, so we have planned to begin and end an episode with a cliffhanger," concludes Harish, on a hopeful note.
