Three Friends Battle ‘Expectation vs Reality’ in Basement Company
The show tells you the story of three first jobbers.
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Basement Company, streaming on MX Player, tells you the story of three first jobbers Raj, Simran and Rahul who are rather unexpectedly forced into the basement of their Gurgaon start-up as it’s undergoing renovation. The basement is now their new workplace and understandably, this leaves the three of them quite disillusioned. They are compelled to deal with weak wifi and a leaky ceiling on a daily basis. The rest of the story is about how the trio make all attempts to reclaim their space upstairs, while also juggling friendships, relationships and their own dreams.
We caught up with Gagan Arora, Apoorva Arora and Mayur More who play Raj, Simran and Rahul to know more about the show, their roles and start-up dreams.
Tell us about your role in Basement Company.
Gagan: I’m playing Raj, a proper Delhi boy who has lived a middle class life and he’s very ambitious about his professional life. He’s an extrovert who finds it very easier to make friends as compared to Rahul (Mayur) who’s his office mate. But he ends up becoming only friends with Rahul because that’s how his office psyche works. The reason why I took up the character of Raj was because I found it very interesting how the writers have written the character. Whenever I’ve read a Delhi boy character, he’s mostly been very loud in terms of his dialogue, it has been a very stereotypical way of projecting a Delhi boy. But what the writer and the director did was that, in my first meeting I was told specifically to not stereotype the character and play it as naturally as I can because I am a Delhi boy.
Apoorva: My character Simran Ahuja is a quintessential South Delhi Punjabi girl. So as Apoorva, I had to balance that fancy, hoity-toity South Delhi girl, of course not a snob. The brief that I got from Divyanshu (director) was always that Simran is not bitchy or mean just because she’s from a certain part of the city or because she’s been brought up in a certain way. It was a balance between her Punjabi-ness and her being that fancy girl from a well-to-do family. So, that was it and she’s at a place where she doesn’t want to be and despite that she has to survive and there’s no other option. You can see her journey from absolutely hating the place and people there to accepting her situation and trying to find her happiness in whatever she could get.
Mayur: The situations in the show are very funny and you will see how these three people get stuck and then find ways of coming out. I wanted to work with Gagan and Apoorva because I had seen their work and was very excited to work with them. When I had a discussion with Divyanshu (director), I got to know how exciting this can be if we do it. So we just supported him and did whatever he wanted to pull off and we were just trying to give our best.
Youngsters will relate to the ‘expectation vs reality’ scenario in the show. If you had to give one survival tip to anyone in a similar situation what would it be?
Mayur: I think you should be positive and just focus on good things. You’ll get the answer and I feel that the situation should be tough. The tougher it is, the more you learn. So it’s best that you just keep learning.
Gagan: What I do totally I can tell because the character is caught up in a situation which I have not met in my life. I’ve never been a part of something like this. Something that I would recommend in a time like this, I know it might sound very nerdy but I always make a ‘pros and cons’ list and think about the consequences of my decision and after calculating all that, I just end up doing what my heart really wants.
Apoorva: At the risk of sounding preachy, I would say that whatever I have learnt in the last couple of years is that losing your cool in a crisis situation has never helped anybody and that’s what the three lead characters end up doing a lot. Thinking about the problem calmly helps you come up with a much better solution and actually reacting immediately and getting all worked up about it. So I feel patience is one thing that takes time but it’s really helpful.
One reason people should watch Basement Company right away.
Apoorva: People should watch this show because its a slice-of-life comedy and it might just be your story. It’s binge-worthy. Despite knowing the story, despite knowing the scenes, I watched it the moment it released and I just could not stop. This is a very different kind of a relationship. It’s very fresh because lot of shows and lot of roles that I have done have been romantic, girl meets boy situations. But here, it’s completely different. There’s no romantic angle in a conventional sense so I think it’s a breath of fresh air for most people so I think they would really enjoy it.
Mayur: Because it’s for free and available on your phone, laptop or whichever device. It’s very easily accessible because MX Player does not even ask you for a subscription or to put in a password. You just have to go and watch the show.
Gagan: The type of content that has been coming out of late, it’s been a trend across platforms, that they’ve shifted to a lot of thrillers, violence, a lot of bold, physicality and action-based content. So, this show actually gives a break from all that. It helps you relax and watch something that is very light like all of us have had something like this in our life. It’s a slice-of-life show and it ends up comforting you a lot and I think people need a shift in mood, sometimes. This is a proper show for that.
The show is about a start-up. If you’re given a chance to start up, what would it be about and why?
Gagan: Has anyone though of alcohol delivery? Has that been done already done in India? There might be some legal issues. Let’s not go there. Because, I’m really into sports, I think I’ll make an app about people who want to play in areas, but have nobody. For eg, somebody who has just shifted and he has no friends or something and he wants to play cricket, football or whatever. The app will let you find people to play sports with from nearby areas. Basically, a Tinder but for sports.
Mayur: If I want to start something then it would be something like a musical show or a channel where I can serve different kinds of music and specially folk music of India. So I would love to do a show or start-up on folk music of India and let people experience beautiful music.
Apoorva: Until now, I had never really thought about a start-up as I’ve always been an actor but the one that thing I would want to foray into is film-making. I mean from a producer’s point of view. I have always worked in front of the camera, I would like to work behind the camera. That’s not really a ‘start-up’ start-up idea. But yes, I got this idea from the show itself that my love for Punjabi music is undying and I might as well do something around that if I have my own start-up.
Basement Company comprises 5 episodes and is streaming now on MX Player.
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