I'm jack of all trades who is trying to master one, Tanuj Virwani on Inside Edge 2 & More!

India's streaming giant Amazon Prime's first Indian original series Inside Edge based on a fictional T-20 cricket team and the dark world of gambling released on July 2017. The series was extremely appreciated by everyone and was critically acclaimed. To everyone's surprise, the series also won a nomination in the prestigious 46th International Emmy Awards. Vivek Oberoi, Richa Chadda and Angad Bedi played the main characters in the series and the series is now being renewed for a second season.

We contacted actor Tanuj Virwani (Rati Agnihotri's son) who plays star cricketer Vayu Raghavan in the series. In a candid chat with us Tanuj spoke about Inside Edge, upcoming Zee 5 series Poison, Akshara Hassan controversy and much more.

Inside Edge was a hit series and garnered a lot of appreciation. The series explored the dark side of cricket and gambling world which connected well with the audience. What new will this season explore?

See, the second season will be the sequel to the first one and the story will continue. The reason why it took so long is because we didn't want to rehash the same thing. Just because one thing worked doesn't mean we have to repeat it. Yes, there will be a lot of similarities with the previous season, but it has a bunch of interesting new stuff to offer too.

The show was nominated for the prestigious 46th International Emmy Awards. How did it feel?

The entire cast and crew, we all were shooting in Georgia at that time and suddenly someone shared this link that we have got nominated for Emmys. Most of us thought it was a joke because in our wildest dreams we had not even thought of something like this, so no one paid any heed to it. 

The next day we got an official call informing that the news is true and our series has actually been nominated and it was incredible to hear that and we had a big party. Though, now we are more careful as we don't want to bugger up what we have achieved.

Your character Vayu Raghavan was well received by the audience, but we didn't see much of you on screen after the series. Was it a conscious decision to choose projects wisely?

First, I always want to choose quality over quantity because an actor is always known by the quality of his craft. Secondly, the kind of offers that I was getting after Inside Edge were kind of similar to my character and I didn't want to repeat myself. And web series are not like movies whose fate we get to know by the first weekend, it's a slow process to grow fan base and reach till audience.

You've also tried your hand in direction. What do you enjoy the most, acting or direction?

I always knew I wanted to do something creative, so earlier I started out with advertising and writing and then direction happened. At that point there was no intention of becoming an actor. But having said that, right now my focus is only on acting. I'm jack of all trades who is trying to master one right now.

After the unfortunate case that happened with Akshara Hassan, how did it affect your life and career?

It hasn't really affected my career as such, but yeah of course it wasn't a very pleasant time for us. When we were dating we were consciously quite low-key about it, but when all of this came to light I actually felt very bad for her. I don't think any girl should go through such situation. But, you gotta take such things in stride and just move on.

You're also doing a Zee 5 web series titled Poison, tell us something about your character in it.

Yes, I'm shooting for it right now. I'm playing this guy who has been locked up in jail for many years and now he is out to avenge everyone who did wrong to him. It's kind of a revenge drama.