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The Web Has Great Potential: Selection Day Actor Ratna Pathak Shah

Find out why Ratna Pathak is disappointed with Indian TV.

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Ahead of the release of their new web series Selection Day, The Quint caught up with Ratna Pathak Shah and Rajesh Tailang, who spoke about their distinct characters, the role of teachers and why Indian television leaves a lot to be desired.

The story traces the journey of two boys — Manju and Radha — who are trained in cricket by their father, who sells chutney for a living. His aim is to make sure that they are selected for the Mumbai under-19 cricket team. Rajesh plays their disciplinarian father, while Ratna plays the sweet, encouraging principal of the school that they study at.

We took them back in time, and asked them about the memories of their teachers. “Mundane,” said Ratna. “They weren’t vicious either, but no one really colourful or memorable,” she said.

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For Rajesh, the character was in complete contrast to his real self. He said, “Luckily my father was not like Mohan, and I am also not like Mohan so I didn’t really have any direct identification points for Mohan, but I have seen people like him. There are people who want their kids to do as they say and fulfill their parents’ dreams and their aspirations.”

Ratna has worked on television for years, but has often been critical of the quality of shows. Ask her if the entry of OTT platforms like Netflix is a good change and she says, “Well it’s a welcome change that there are many more options to tell stories. So far the stories are new but how long before we revert, writing new stories is not an easy job, you can’t put a gun to someone’s head and say, ‘Now write a good story, write a good story, write a good script.’ It doesn’t work like that, if possible I would have written, you would have written, everyone would have written good stories and good scripts.”

She expresses her disappointment over content on television and said, “Television all over the world has produced excellent stuff, how come India has not done that. How come we are constantly producing sub standard work in films after hundred years of being there.”

Selection Day will be released worldwide on Netflix on 28 December.

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Topics:  Netflix   Ratna Pathak Shah 

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