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Celebrities, unfiltered

on air
Last Updated 26 November 2016, 18:39 IST

Film chat shows are a dime a dozen on television. There have been serious chat shows, purely entertaining ones, and also ones that are a bit of both. But none of them have been online and unedited. That is what actress Neha Dhupia claims her show to be all about. Titled No Filter Neha, this chat show airs on Tuesday every week on the music streaming app Saavn, and is co-produced by the star herself.

Neha, who has recently donned the hat of a producer, says, “With my production house (Big Girls Production), I always tried to do something unique. This show is a baby step towards that. I should thank my partners in crime, the people from Saavn, who have showed so much interest in this project.” Neha’s show has celebrities ranging from Sonam Kapoor to Anurag Kashyap to Karan Johar and Ranbir Kapoor.

So, how does she choose the celebrity for her hot seat? “My team and I do a detailed research, which includes looking at things like popularity of the celebrity and also how keen people are on listening to them. From day one, I was very sure that I wouldn’t do any run-of-the-mill stuff. What I am giving to my listeners is special and that has always been my main motto,” Neha states.

Being an actress herself, was it easier getting celebrities on her show?
“Approaching them was easy. And making them agree was easy too! I was amazed to see their punctuality and dedication.” Neha knows that the USP of her audio show is the content. She adds, “I have realised that content is gold. Keeping that in mind, we have created a few fun-filled games for the show. At the end of these games, celebrities say something which they would have never said otherwise.”

Candid talk

The show’s main advantage over others is the absence of cameras. “I have noticed that whenever  celebrities come for a chat show that has no cameras or doesn’t demand any makeup, they become more candid. Give them a mike and they open up better. Before I started the show, I did a trial run with myself. Later on, when I heard myself, I was amazed to hear how candid and frank I was. I was surprised that I spoke so much. Thus, an audio-only show helps.”
Delving deeper into the details of her show, Neha says that the research part was the toughest. “We spoke to sources who are close to the celebrities. For example, before the chat with Sonam Kapoor, we spoke to her younger brother Harshvardhan. The amount of funny stuff he revealed about her was unbelievable. It was great content for our show. She kept cursing him throughout (jokingly). For Karan Johar, we spoke to his films’ assistant directors and he was very impressed with the stuff we unearthed,” she says.
“Director Anurag Kashyap may be a brilliant filmmaker, but when it comes to playing cricket, he is just the opposite. He scored a duck many times. He was also surprised to know that I knew this bit of information about him. It was difficult in the cases of Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor when we realised that their sources were quite tight-lipped about them,” explains Neha proudly.

The need to start a show like this stems from Neha’s urge to be creative every single day. She says, “Right from my childhood, I have always been keen on doing new things everyday. I never watched television. If nothing came to my mind, I would just redo my room. I also started working quite early when compared to other kids. I remember I used to give swimming lessons to my juniors. Apart from mathematics, I would have done every possible thing.”

So, how has the journey from a beauty pageant to a producer been for her? Neha says, “I have come a long way and still have a long way to go. I would like to associate myself with good films. I agree there were times when I have done films for money, but all of us have done that. Now I won’t. I am happy that as a producer, I have reached a phase where I would like to produce good films. In fact, I have a future film in mind right now.”

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(Published 26 November 2016, 14:47 IST)

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