‘A moment of pride for us,’ says Madhvani, despite no award

Mumbai, Nov 23 Team ‘Aarya’ may not have come out of the 49th International Emmy Awards evening with an award, but for the show’s co-creator Ram Madhvani, the nomination of the Disney+ Hotstar series came with its share of positives.

Responding to a query from IANS about how it felt to see so many Indians at an international awards event celebrating the best of television outside the U.S., Madhvani said during an interaction early on Tuesday: “When we attended the cocktail event last evening, all of us were feeling so happy. Nawazuddin (Siddiqui) was there. I met Vir Das too. When we saw all of us, at such a huge platform, yes, it was a moment of pride for all of us … standing together as Indians.”

Madhvani added that he had never imagined that such a moment would come for India. “Representing India on such a platform with our show or the kind of talent that we have, honestly speaking, I did not think it would ever happen,” he said. “But all this is happening for real!”

He continued: “It’s a big thing to be nominated! Because we’re all here personally, all of us together and with good wishes from everybody out there who made this happen. Thank you! It wouldn’t have happened without your wishes, because the way we worked, it’s like a miracle from God which made us come so far.”

Madhvani ended with words of appreciation for the show’s writer. He said: “This was also possible because of our writer and the ‘Dialogue Baazi’, the game of dialogues with an Indian touch to it, which we have in the show.”

Chandrachur Singh, who played the character of Tej Sareen in the show, said: “I got to debut on OTT with ‘Aarya’. There is so much magic in it, Ram is one of the finest creators that I know and the entire team led by him is truly skilled. Ram himself is a great leader and very kind. This is one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.”

Co-created and co-directed by Sandeep Modi, the Season 1 of the series marked the OTT debut of the Miss Universe 1994 and Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen. Its star cast included Sikandar Kher, Chandrachur Singh, Akash Khurana, Vikas Kumar, Maya Sarao and Tariq Vasudeva.