Starting off with Budhia Singh – Born To Run, Soumendra Padhi has taken his directorial career to the next level with a Netflix original Jamtara – Sabka Number Ayega
BHUBANESWAR: Having made his directorial debut with Budhia Singh – Born To Run starring Manoj Bajpayee, Soumendra Padhi has taken his biggest step yet with a ten-episode series Jamtara – Sabka Number Ayega, now streaming on Netflix.
The series is based in a group of small-town young men who run a lucrative cyber crime/phishing operation, until a corrupt politician wants in on their scheme, and a cop wants to fight it. It is the story of young, ambitious, volatile people who have the world before them. Masterminds and cousins, Sunny and Rocky, along with their friends, quietly run a wildly successful phishing scam from a small village Jamtara.
Interacting with Orissa POST, Padhi said that the premise of the movie inspired him as he had very little idea of the topic. “I was very curious to know how phishing or con works. It is surprising sometime to think how some youngsters who never went to school duped big, qualified and high professional people of lakhs of rupees,” he said.
The series is based on real life incidents in Jamatra district in Jharkhand. The city is believed to be the phishing capital of India. The city was at the eye of the storm whenever a phishing case crept up anywhere in the country. In the span of two years between April 2015 and March 2017, police from 12 Indian states reportedly made 23 journeys to Jamtara.
Those involved in cybercrimes had bought luxury SUVs and put up fancy bungalows next to ramshackle cottages. And with few opportunities in a poverty-stricken country, phishing became a household business in Jamtara.
The news intrigued the writers of the movie who then visited the area and after lot of research of the area wrote the scripts. After that Viacom 18 reached Padhi with the direction of this movie and later Netflix came into picture and produced it.
Padhi said, “We tried to depict the visuals of Jamtara through various characters. We attempted to make an entertaining series and make people aware of the issue. The movie has other sub stories like two brothers fighting for money and dreams of youngsters. He said that in the movie we tried to showcase the motives behind this conning by the characters.”
“The streaming of the series in Netflix is a blessing as the movie reaches over 190 countries in multiple subtitles which is not possible if we released it in the theatres,” he added.
The movie has a blend of young and experienced actors such as Sparsh Shrivastav known for shows such as Shake It Up and Balika Vadhu, Anshuman Pushkar who has appeared in web series Gandi Baat. It also stars experienced actors like Amit Sial and Dibyendu Bhattacharya.
The shooting took place at Ranchi, Dhanbad, Mumbai, Delhi and Nasik. We also shot in Jamtara and recreated the village in studios. Reflecting on his directorial journey, Padhi said, “The journey from Budhia Singh to Jamtara was very fruitful. I am fortunate to direct this movie which was offered to me. I want to thank the writers of this series Trishant Srivastava and Nishank Verma.”
arindam ganguly, op
