'Aspirants 2' premiered on Amazon Prime Video on October 25. It is directed by Apoorv Singh Karki and written by Deepesh Sumitra Jagdish.
TVF's 'Aspirants' is back with Season 2 which brings back the stellar cast including Naveen Kasturia, Shivankit Singh Parihar, Sunny Hinduja, Abhilash Thapliyal and Namita Dubey. The show premiered on Amazon Prime Video on October 25. Both seasons of 'Aspirants' are directed by Apoorv Singh Karki and written by Deepesh Sumitra Jagdish.
Ahead of the release of the show, Garima Das of Outlook India had a freewheeling conversation with Apoorv who revealed that he had a cathartic moment while making the show. For the unversed, Apoorv was a UPSC aspirant but couldn't crack it. He used 'Aspirants' as a cathartic therapy for him.
On what the audience can expect from 'Aspirants 2', Apoorv said, ''We are eternally grateful to the audience for giving so much love to Season 1 of Aspirants. So, we always wanted to approach Season 2 with the same honesty that we had for the first season. As we were moving into the next phase of the UPSC world, Deepesh and I wanted to show that beyond the final interview of UPSC, there is a fight for an aspirant and there is another on the other side and how what you have learned during the struggles of UPSC prep days will ultimately come in handy when you eventually take the job. So, it is a beautiful contrast that we have placed and I think the audience will love that contrast. Also, there are human emotions, there are friendships, expectations and a lot more. You will see a lot of human emotions this season and also a lot of great surprises to see''.
Asked if directing 'Aspirants' was a cathartic moment for him, he revealed, ''Absolutely. In fact, back in 2013-14 I was prepping for the UPSC examination when I returned from Mumbai knowing that nothing was going to happen in the film industry, I worked hard a lot. But eventually, that vacuum of coming back to shows was always there. When this show came to me in 2019-20, while shooting I used to tell Naveen and Deepesh that either this show will do great for me or it will ruin my career because eventually, it has come back to my life after six years of struggles.''
''It was a cathartic moment when it was the last day of the show. I have shared about it to very few people that on the last day of the show, I was driving my car and cried a lot because six years ago I ran from Mumbai to prepare for UPSC and then again making shows for six years to land with a UPSC show was a great moment for me. It's a very special show and will be special to me because it got me back to the industry,'' added the director.
He also credited Deepesh for his writing as the 'Bandaa' director said, ''The credit goes to Deepesh because he had written a great show without me. When he and Arunabh (Kumar) asked me to do it, I got those great moments back. So, I lived through those moments. I think Deepesh has a lot of credit to his side for this show.''
Apoorv also said that it's not tricky to create characters that are so relatable. ''I think it's only about observations. When we sit with our friends, we know each other's good and bad traits. We also know each other's trigger points. We have so many vivid people around us. So, we formed as characters. UPSC world is a world of humans. So, we don't have to move out of human emotions to create that world. We still have to be in the world of human emotions. These are the things you do during the time of jamming and during the time of making a character. Eventually, when you sit, write and develop that show, your people, and your character keep coming along with you. So, I don't think it's a tricky process,'' he said.