| Escaype Live, a Siddharth Kumar Tewary’s directorial web series on Disney + Hotstar shines a light on the dangers of social media intoxication. It is a race to the finish for everyone with a phone. After all, that’s what life is about these days, right? For most of us, enjoyment and life are unimaginable without the intervention of the internet or social media and there is no doubt that technological advancements as a whole have made life much easier for us all, but the question remains — how much is too much? And can social media addiction exploit your dreams to derive its own ends? Produced by One Life Studios, Disney + Hotstar’s latest offering Escaype Live seems to be in search of these answers, and in the process, it mirrors realities that we as users of social media ourselves often tend to forget. Created & Directed by Siddharth Kumar Tewary, Escaype Live top lines stars like Siddharth, Javed Jaffrey, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Swastika Mukherjee, Plabita Borthakur, Waluscha De Sousa, Ritvik Sahore, Sumedh Mudgalkar, Sharat Saxena, Geetika Vidya, Jagjeet Sandhu and Rohit Chandel amongst others and promises to be a scintillating ride into the minds of people inhabiting the world of social media. The series trailer begins with the introduction of a new social media app that is taking the country by storm while promising its users a platform that nurtures and supports their talent while allowing them to “escape” from their “dull and boring” lives. Promoted as a platform where “anyone with a phone can become a star”, Escaype Live has millions of people already hooked to it and things are completely hunky-dory until the makers of the app announce a winning purse of ₹3 Crore throwing the lives of 6 ordinary Indians askew and setting to attract the stage for a tale most extraordinary where nothing is as simple as it seems. From a Mumbai based parkour artiste to a singing sensation from Varanasi, a child dancer from Jaisalmer to a girl specializing in producing adult content from Bangalore, and a daredevil with a secret past who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, this series examines the emotional journeys of users from across the length and breadth of the country all of whose lives change after the commencement of this competition. While they all enjoy the attention showered upon them, they are also forced into confronting their innermost demons as they challenge each other in a quest to earn the ultimate prize that they believe could change their reality. Or so it seems until one man realizes that the rules of this competition are not as simple as they seem. But will he be able to stand against the system that he himself is a part of or will he have to succumb to this “business” of entertainment that has no place in face of human emotions? Tracing the internal journeys of users from different socio-political backgrounds, this social thriller is an exploration of how the lines between what’s real and virtual begin to blur in the face of aspiration and ambition. Thus, “How far will you go to achieve your dreams?” the caption of the trailer rightly sums up the idea behind this story which most of us connect with instinctively. The narrative of the series promises a high adrenaline ride to the world of the virtual and oscillates between the deepest of lows and the highest highs as the contestants battle it out to reach the top. “The Game Begins” on May 20th on Disney+ Hotstar. Let’s find out exactly how exciting this ride is going to be! |
