Netflix Hindi thriller web series Kaala Paani is a 7-part show that stars Ashutosh Gowariker as Lt Admiral Zibran Qadri, Mona Singh as Dr Soudamini, Amey Wagh as Police Officer Ketan Kamat, Sukant Goel as Chiranjeevi, Vikas Kumar as Santosh, Radhika Mehrotra as Dr Ritu Gagra, Arushi Sharma as Jyotsna, Chinmay Mandlekar, Poornima Indrajith, and others. It is set on the Andaman Islands, where people are diagnosed with a mysterious virus in 2027.
The survival thriller is co-directed by Sameer Saxena and Amit Golani, and the story is by Biswapati Sarkar. Biswapati co-wrote the screenplay with Amit, Sandeep Saket and Nimisha Misra. The series is hailed by critics and audiences alike for its central theme, the struggle for survival, and compelling characters. One such character is Chiranjeevi, aka Chiru, played by Sukant Goel.
Kaala Paani Trailer
Kaala Paani on Netflix starts with Chiranjeevi, a tour guide in Andaman who has his own ways of earning money. We see tremendous growth in his character, from being a selfish person to someone who willingly agrees to go through tests to save people. Leisurebyte spoke to actor Sukant Goel, one of the shining stars of the Kaala Paani cast, about his experience working on the show and much more. (The interview contains spoilers from the show.)
Read Kaala Paani Actor Sukant Goel’s Interview Below (The Interview Contains Spoilers From the Show)
What do you have to say about the positive reviews Kaala Paani 2023 has received?
I’m very happy because that’s what you hope. That’s great if the hundreds of people who came together to make this project have affected so many people. There’s nothing more that you could ask for; it’s brilliant.
After the pandemic, many dark crime thriller series have made their way. But some people also seek light content. Now, here comes a survival thriller that is eerily similar to pandemic events. Were you ever concerned about how the show would be received?
So, I had a lot of worries; I had a lot of anxiety. When I read the script, I saw that there was a disease involved and was worried if people wanted to watch it so soon after the pandemic. Everyone suffered a lot of losses; every household has seen losses. I personally could not watch a lot of content that was structured around COVID-19, whether it was plays, films, or series. I was also affected, and we aren’t completely out of it.
But like Aarushi said, the show isn’t just about that (the epidemic). It’s about what happens. That’s just context. There’s a lot of human story around it. So it doesn’t stay around the virus, and it goes deeper into the very intimate spaces of these characters. So, therefore, it’s more of a relief than a chokehold about people suffering from an epidemic. But I was very anxious, and I’m glad the responses are good.
The show begins and ends with Chiru’s character, and while explaining what Kaala Paani stands for, Chiru himself unravels truths about his origins and that changes him. Does he feel a sense of purpose now to stand in as a mouthpiece for the Orakas?
Well, that’s for writers to decide where they want to take it after this. I don’t know whether I can be a mouthpiece. I don’t know for how long Chiranjeevi can take on that responsibility. He’s affected right with everything at the end of season one. He’s acting out of this expectation. But like the show says, we are slaves to our instincts. Maybe there’s a change right now. Maybe he hasn’t really changed. If the status quo changes after a while, then maybe he goes back to his instincts.
So I don’t know whether you’re going to be a mouthpiece. But yes, something has changed for sure. He goes with them at the moment, as we see in the end.
Also Read: Vikas Kumar on Action-Packed Aarya Season 3, Working With Sushmita Sen and More (Exclusive)
In one of the interviews, you mentioned that you went to Andaman to understand the culture, but a cyclone hit, and you were stranded. You had to be rescued by a boat, which wasn’t an easy ride. Did it affect you in any way while filming Netflix’s Kaala Paani?
Not so much during the shoot. I don’t want to romanticise it; ultimately, we were acting. But the good thing is that there was an experience that I got when I travelled to Andaman on my own; the feeling of being stuck was very real, and I could recollect that very easily. So to play, it became easier. The good thing was that the people who were with me in the show, like most of my scenes were with Santosh (Vikas Kumar), and because he came for the first time, he was experiencing Andaman freshly, so it was a difficult shoot. We were away from our regular lifestyles, so the feeling of being stuck was new to them.
For me, it had already happened. So I had to channel what I had learned, and they had to really respond to the situation. It was always on the edge because you’re in the jungle or you’re in the water. No matter what health and safety measures you take, you are at nature’s mercy. Within five minutes, the boatman tells you, ‘Come on, we gotta go, we gotta go’, because the water’s coming in, and you can’t do anything about it. You have to get out. So you can’t fight that massive force of nature. So you’re always aware of that. We never felt like – oh, we needed to escape from the shoot or something.
Kaala Paani has an open ending and has left many loose ends, teasing Season 2. So, there’s a lot that remains to be told. What do you expect to happen with your character, considering Chiru has lived with the islanders and his roots lie with the Orakas?
I love the islands. I think Andaman became like a little home for me. I have so many friends there now, so many local people from different communities. As much as I would love to shoot in beautiful, luxurious places, which I’ve never had in my life, I would love to go back to Andaman and shoot the second season. I don’t know what will happen to the cast. I want to meet Pundi again. I don’t want him to die. Yeah. I can’t deal with that.
Kaala Paani is now streaming on Netflix.