Fireflies Parth Aur Jugnu producer Amrit Walia says 'people are scared of taking risks' in Indian OTT space | Exclusive

The fantasy drama Fireflies: Parth Aur Jugnu is the latest series in the Indian OTT space. The action-packed adventure show, which premiered on ZEE5 on May 5, revolves around a 14-year-old dispirited boy Parth, who meets a mystical kid named Jugnu in the haunted forests of Bheem Mukhteshwar.

The show also marks the debut of Amrit Walia as a producer. In an exclusive interview with DNA India, she shared with us that Fireflies was her own concept that stayed with her for over a decade. What makes Fireflies fresh and unique in the Indian streaming space is that it is the first kids-based show across multiple OTT platforms in India.

When we asked Amrit why there has been an absence of original kids-based content in India, she said, "Fireflies is the first web series, which is a completely 7+ (over 7 years) content, which you can sit with your family and enjoy. I feel people are scared of taking risks. When you are starting out, you are not scared. This is my first project so I was not scared. I just wanted to make something unique. Fireflies is a trendsetter, the trend that we are starting over here. A lot of people don't have the courage to begin something new, that is most likely the reason why people are not making a lot of kids' shows."

Since Amrit had previously worked as a casting director before making her production debut, she also shared how the two processes are entirely different. "I did not start my career as a casting director, I had started my career in channel programming. Casting was something that happened to me in the interim, while I was working on concepts and what to do next. Of course, casting is very different from production. Casting is just one department out of the multiple departments that are working throughout the production. As a casting director, I was only focused on getting the cast right. Over here, as a producer, my responsibility is not just to get the cast right, but the showrunner, writer, and director right. As a casting director, you only have a team of say 8-9 people, as a producer you have a team of 150 people with whom you are working for over a year."

 

 

 

 

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Talking about the biggest challenges she faced in her debut production, Amrit stated, "I had the concept, I took it to the channel, they asked me to work on it, develop it, and come back to them. The biggest challenge was to get the team right - the right director, writer, cinematographer, and editor because you need to have strong pillars to start your project. The second big challenge. after getting the team on board was, to deliver the show at a certain time. When you are working on a commissioned project, you have a deadline. You know that your show is supposed to release on a particular date."

Helmed by Hemant Gaba, Filreflies: Parth Aur Jugnu stars Meet Mukhi, Aekam Binjwe, Madhoo Shah, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Luke Kenny, Akshat Singh, Zoya Afroz, Varun Kapoor, Harshit Bhojwani, Anaya Shivan, Riva Arora, Rahul Singh, and Hitesh Dave in key roles. It is streaming on ZEE5.

READ | Fireflies Parth Aur Jugnu brings perfect amalgamation of fantasy, magic and mythology