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Exclusive: Arjun Rampal gets candid on all things ZEE5's 'The Final Call'

In an Exclusive interaction with DNA, Arjun Rampal spoke at length about his digital debut with Zee5's 'The Final Call'

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On December 12, 2018, Arjun Rampal announced that he will be making his digital debut with ZEE5's original titled The Final Call. The show which streams from February 22, 2019, is an adaptation from the book I Will Go with You: The Flight of a Lifetime by Priya Kumar. The Final Call is helmed by Vijay Lalwani and shows Arjun playing the role of a pilot, who has grey shades. The trailer for the show has left people confused about Arjun's character which has led them to become impatient for the show.

In an Exclusive tête-à-tête with DNA, we asked Arjun about the interesting sketch of his character, shooting for the show in the beautiful locales of Kashmir and more.

Excerpts from the interview...

The teasers have left us confused with your character and we can't make out the exact shade of it. Could you give out some details about your character?

That's what we want the audience to go through because it would be unfair for me to explain really what my character is really all about because you kind of discover him through through those eight episodes. So four episodes are going to release first, okay, and then we are going to release the other four. In the other four, you really get to know what's going on, So that's where you kind of get to know who this character is what he's up to, what he's gone through, and all of that, but yes, he is definitely mentally disturbed. The promos are not lying to you or misleading you. He is definitely going on a mission to do something do something really drastic.

What drew you towards this show that made you decide to debut on the web?

So actually, I was in talks for another web series with ZEE5 and we'll kind of locked it, it was a period drama. When we got this episode when I read them, I wasn't really happy or gung-ho about it, it just didn't sound correct. I didn't know how to tell them because I'm already like, kind of signed and done and, not sign but we kind of almost decided. Then I kind of voiced my opinion, I said, 'You know, I don't like these episodes' And luckily for me, the CEO Tarun Katial, he also immediately before I could even react to it, he said, 'This is rubbish. We can't do this and let's push this forward till we have a proper episode and that was it.

After a week, I get a call back from them and they said, 'Listen, you know, we would still like to do something. And we know, you have these dates. So would you be interested to do this and just come on board with us? That was this novel, I Will Go with You: The Flight of a Lifetime by Priya Kumar. Vijay (Lalwani) came and narrated me the whole subject, he explained the synopsis. We spoke about it, I went through the whole thing and I read the book as well. I saw the difference that he had brought from the book and the final product out here by changing and adding a lot of thrill elements to it and bringing all that. That was what was most exciting for me! The second most exciting was that I look at it as an actor I don't use it on the web series, web platform,  your films also go on that platform. Everything today you can watch on OTT platform. So for me, it is not like, 'Oh, I'm being a web series, I'm doing this'. Yes, the format is different and you have to adjust to that as an actor, but the work is the same. I mean, you bring more experience with you. What is required of you is exactly what I do, all I had to do was to act. I thought this is going to be really challenging because you are on a cockpit for eight episodes, interacting with nobody but yourself, a dead co-pilot and ATC, that's all. 

To go through this gamut of emotions through that, to keep the thrill element on and to keep this whole energy constantly. All this confusion in the audience's mind constantly. I said if I take this and make a film out of it, nobody would it. People won't actually make it but it's such a beautiful story at the same time and how beautifully does it lend itself in actually becoming a web series. So I said okay let's try this. Let's see how it goes and I hope I have made the right decision.

The teasers start with glimpses of Kashmir, how was it shooting it in these locales? Did you face any difficulties while shooting in sensitive areas?

On the contrary, actually, it was very peaceful, I had a great time there and met a lot of people from there. It's really unfortunate what happened yesterday because they were so happy that there's peace and there hasn't been a curfew in a while. A lot of things are exaggerated by the media and the message that we should give everybody is that we are a peaceful place. They truly do want people to come and visit, people should go and visit with such a beautiful place. It's really God's place on earth you and it's really sad what's happen there and my heart bleeds for the people in Kashmir as it bleeds for the jawans that lost their lives because of that suicide bomber. These incidents I think kind of tragedies push you back, push good work and good people's energies back 10 steps. The only way to overcome it is to take 20 steps forward what those 20 steps are going to be, needs to be properly thought of.

What kind of prep did you do for the role?

I play a pilot and I didn't want to go out there and press all the wrong buttons, where all the pilots say, 'Dude, what the hell is he doing?'. I took a lot of flight simulation classes, where I got familiarized with what a cockpit looks like and I learned that Airbus and Boeing have two different cockpits. So I actually practiced on Boeing and then on Airbus and I was like 'Wow'. Then we had another pilot again who came there and by the time I knew this is the throttle, these are the runners, this is how you change directions, this is an altitude thing and this is how you put it on and put it off. Gauge which is an autopilot, you press that and it goes into autopilot mode. I had to do that, so I have flown a plane, I brought it down, landed it, not a real one, but a simulation. At least I didn't crash it! They were quite impressed. I flew it like about eight times and all the time I didn't crash it.

The Final Call has been touted as one of the most anticipated Zee5 Originals for 2019. Apart from Arjun, the show also stars Neeraj Kabi, Sakshi Tanwar, Anupriya Goenka, Javed Jaffrey and Pradeep Rawat in pivotal roles.

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