Actor Tanuj Virwani hogged limelight with his role of Vayu Raghavan in the 2017 Amazon Original television series Inside Edge. Later, he starred in Code M, Poison and co-hosted MTV Splitsvilla 15 with Sunny Leone. Now, he is all set to be seen in Rana Naidu Season 2 – an action crime drama on Netflix directed by Karan Anshuman and Suparn Verma. it is the official adaptation of the 2013 American crime drama TV series Ray Donovan. Tanuj will be seen with he likes of Venkatesh Daggubati, Rana Daggubati, Surveen Chawla among others. He told Zee News Digital about his upcoming show, OTT or Cinemas – what he prefers and work advice from veteran actress and mom Rati Agnihotri.
Q. How did Rana Naidu 2 happen?
Well, I am a massive fan of the first season and I was pretty much out and out when it comes to mentioning it to Karan Anshuman over and over again. He and I go along a long way as he’s been my showrunner for ‘Inside Edge’ as well. We worked together on three seasons of that show and so obviously, we know each other well. He knows me well as an artiste and he especially wrote this role for me and I couldn’t be happier. The day he narrated it to me, I knew this is something that I had to do.
Q. Tell us about your character in the sequel.
So I am essaying the character of Chirag Oberoi. Without getting into too many details, what I can let you know is that the Oberoi family have their hands in a lot of different pies and certain people need to be taken care of. In comes the eternal and ultimate fixer, Rana. You have Rajat Kapoor playing my father and Kriti Kharbanda plays my sister. Trust me, it’s one mad-cap family.
Q. We saw you co-hosting Splitsvilla with Sunny Leone. Tell us about it.
It was a wonderful experience. If you had asked me this question a couple of years back, I think my answer would a very definitive no because I had never hosted anything in my career. Be it in my school or college, literally nothing at all. But when the opportunity came by and I knew Sunny had been associated with the show since so long and she and I go a long way because we had done a movie together ‘One Night Stand’. I just thought that I should take a leap of faith and try something completely different. I have never dabbled in reality TV in any capacity and so I am really glad that I took that plunge because it was really worth my while.
Q. OTT or Cinemas, what do you prefer more?
It’s ‘horses for courses’ is what I feel. Certain material is best suited for the big screen whereas certain material, especially, long-format, larger stories find their perfect home in the OTT space. Personally, for me, as a viewer or actor, there’s nothing that comes remotely close to sitting in a darkened hall watching a film. It is a community experience. You are reacting to similar things with so many other strangers around you, all bound together by their love for cinema. The experience and emotions are top-notch. OTT, on the other hand, is very very exciting domain because it is not about 1-2 actors but the whole ensemble. I feel because of the time duration, you can actually tell a much more fleshed out story and do justice to many characters. The character graph seems a lot more complete over there.
Q. What are your future projects?
Well, after Rana Naidu 2, I have a film called Johnny Jumper where I am essaying the title role. It also co-stars Vijay Raaz, Brijendra Kalra, Zakir Hussain & Zarina Wahab. There’s also ‘DAU’ aka ‘Domestic Anti-Terrorism Unit’ which is a show produced by Applause Entertainment. It is a Mumbai-based crime drama which co-stars Rahul. I also have a lovely little ‘rom com’ called ‘Puppy Love’ that stars Tridha Chaudhary, Divya Agarwal and Nikki Tamboli
Q. Who is your favourite actor or actress in Bollywood?
Based on the current body of work, I definitely think Ranbir Kapoor & Vicky Kaushal would be right up there. For actresses, it would be Alia Bhatt. But if you talk about my all-time favourite actor, it’s a no-brainer that it’s the one & only Shah Rukh Khan.
Q. Does mom Rati Agnihotri give u work advice?
My mom and I share a lovely bond with each other where she is my best friend and also my harshest critic. Many times, her advice to me doesn’t have specifically to do with acting but it’s more about how one should conduct himself in this industry and how to ensure that certain situations don’t get the better of me. She’s always maintained that this is an industry where the highs can be very high and the lows can be very low and lonely. Never ever let success get into your head and at the same time, don’t allow failure to rule your heart. Because, no matter how dark it gets, the sun will rise and there will be a new day, a new opportunity to prove your mettle and grab glory.
