The countrywide lockdown to curb the coronavirus pandemic forced people indoors last month and plenty have been working from home since. Production house Yoodlee Films has decided to make the best of the circumstances by holding an online audition for its upcoming film. Titled Comedy Couple, the urban comedy is due to be released directly on a major OTT (Over-The-Top) platform.
Like many others, Yoodlee Films is working from home and preparing for its upcoming films with daily online meetings and, now, auditions.
Siddharth Anand Kumar, vice-president of television and films at Saregama, said this shift was imminent, given the current scenario. "These are extraordinary times we are living in, and we need to find a way to adapt," he stated. "We felt that this was really the best time to reach out to a whole lot of talent out there and conduct online auditions for our upcoming direct-to-OTT film, Comedy Couple. We also realize that this allows us to reach out to a larger corpus of potential actors across the country, blurring geographical boundaries."
For the auditions, applicants will need to record a film monologue of their choice and send it to a designated email address Later, the shortlisted ones will be contacted through video-calling apps for a second round of live auditions. This live audition round will be more detailed, with immediate feedback and engagement for the applicants.
Yoodlee Films, which won two National awards last year for Hamid (2019), has an untitled Tamil film, a situational comedy, in the pipeline at the post-production stage, a Marathi film called Habaddi, and three other Hindi films ready for release, Chaman Bahaar, Axone and Bahut Hua Sammaan.