Kartik Aaryan was first choice for Freddy, he gave everything to the film: producer Jay Shewakramani

Kartik Aaryan is currently winning praise for his convincing performance in his first psychological thriller, Freddy.

The actor plays a lonely dentist who goes on to kill people by mercilessly extracting their teeth. From an actor who first impressed with his long monologue and then delivered one romantic comedy after another, Freddy came out as quite a surprise for his fans.

But producer Jay Shewakramani says this is exactly what they wanted for the film. “when the script got ready, the first person I took it to was Kartik. I was very clear that I have to go to him. Luckily, he did it.” And even in his next, the producer along with filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh has Kareena Kapoor as their first choice for a murder mystery, an adaptation of Japanese novel, The Devotion of Suspect X.

Freddy is an original screenplay written by Parveez Shaikh. The film went on floors in August last year and was wrapped up in October. On choosing Kartik when he had never done such a genre before, Jay says, “That is what I wanted. I wanted an actor who had never done this before. That actually became the USP of the film.

That was the whole idea behind going to him. He is a great actor and I knew pulling that off won’t be a problem for him. He gave everything to the film as an actor. He was a total team player which ensured everything went smoothly.”

Freddy was originally shot for the digital medium and Kartik too was on the same page. It was directed by Shashanka Ghosh. Jay feels there are certain kind of stories which the theatre audience might not cater to.

On being asked how do they gauge the success of an OTT release, Jay says, “There are no numbers but it’s the love the film is getting and its overwhelming. There are reviews and the acclaim. I have friends from school who have not spoken to me in 15-20 years.

They found my number and messaged me that how much they loved the film. Numbers is not the benchmark. Wherever I am going these days, someone or the other has seen Freddy and is saying nice things about it. The love that the film gets is the benchmark to know that it worked.”

Like Freddy which released on Disney+ Hotstar, Kareena’s film too will have a direct to digital release on Netflix around the middle of next year. “When we are going to actors with films – we need to put something different on the table for them. And that’s what works for us. Now with more platforms coming in, people are more receptive of taking risks. And it’s paying off very well,” says Jay.

The film is a murder mystery also starring Jaideep Ahlawat and Vijay Verma. It has been mostly shot in Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Talking about shooting in the east, Jay says, “Its beautiful. Sujoy has shot there before and was very keen to shoot there.

It’s the first time I shot there. It was a lovely experience. That was post pandemic so there weren’t many restrictions. It was a very helpful state (West Bengal), we had a very smooth schedule.”