Actor Pratik Gandhi, who is known for playing 'Harshad Mehta' in 'Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story', now plays journalist Aashu Patel in Hindi audio show 'Gangistan'.The story revolves around Gujarati author and journalist Aashu Patel and his investigation and research work about the Mumbai underworld.Talking about 'Gangistan', Pratik says that this is his first audio show and he has known Aashu Patel for many years, so bringing the character on-screen was not that tricky."Playing the role of Aashu was slightly easy for me because I have known Aashu Patel for many years. Immersing myself in complex emotions and intriguing situations was a treat. I was able to naturally relate with the protagonist's ambition and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of having to use only my voice to perform the role."
The story of 'Gangistan' spans across different eras like the 1960s, 1980s and the present. It brings out some interesting facts and stories about Mumbai's gangs, their operations and impact on people. The 48-episode series features Pratik Gandhi, Saiyami Kher and Dayashankar Pandey in lead roles.Pratik adds: "'Gangistan' lets you create your own visual interpretation which I think is the power of audio. What's cool is that while recording it with the team, we did not just stand in front of the mic and speak. We recreated situations from the script, for example a hospital scene with Saiyami lying down in the studio and me sitting next to her or some of the encounter scenes where the actors ran across the studio."'Gangistan' is directed by Siddhanta Pinto, the story by Aashu Patel, writer and creative producer Heer Khant.
For journalist Aashu Patel, this has been a nostalgic affair. He adds: "Audio has an appeal similar to that of the power of the pen, in the sense that it's left to the audience's imagination to picturise the story. Writing 'Gangistan' with Heer Khant brought back so many memories from my journalism days. It is truly a grand story, over a grand timeline of several decades, straddling both fiction and non-fiction. This has never been done before in the audio space."Director Siddhanta Pinto says that the project took a year to complete: "Finally, after being in the Indian audio industry since 2001, I feel we are scratching the surface of the true power of audio. This project took over a year, and every minute has brought joy."The Hindi audio thriller 'Gangistan' can be listened to on Spotify.