Karan Jotwani on his series 'Firsts', getting nuances of a topic like accidental pregnancy right and more

'Firsts' from Dice Media is an Instagram series that is currently in its 6th season and narrates the enriching journey of a young couple, faced by a surprise pregnancy, eventually taking a leap into parenthood. ‘Firsts’ season 6 is an emotional journey of an ambitious married couple- Pakhi, played by Tara Alisha Berry, and Ankur, portrayed by Karan Jotwani. Hit with the news of an unplanned pregnancy, the young working professionals work through their apprehensions and doubts as they experience their magical ‘Firsts’ of welcoming the baby. The 20 unique one-minute episodes of this season show the duo working through many obstacles in terms of managing work commitments, to the pregnancy and then the birth of the baby as well. 

India Forums got in touch with Karan about the same, and he got talking about the shooting, what's ahead, and reaching the right audience. 

Since it is quite a sensitive topic, probably something you don't relate to, how was it shooting?

More than being a sensitive topic, it is a very personal topic, I believe. I am not sure how often this happens with people, but it must happen and it is a very personal call as to how do people go about the process of keeping the child or aborting it, it is very situational and a lot of thought goes into it. But yes, it is not a story that happens every day, it is an unplanned pregnancy, some people want to go ahead with keeping the child, and some people like Ankur and Pakhi did, wonder now what? A lot has to do with how they are doing financially, how they are as individuals, then together, but more importantly, when they are together. It is a very mutual decision. I don't know how it usually is, but I think women should always be respected for the thought process because she will be going through it, so tomorrow, if a woman says no, that's where the man, irrespective of how he badly wants it, probably can have a discussion. It was fun while doing it, we had a great team, it is something new that I haven't done before, since I come from a TV background, so something new on OTT was refreshing to do.

These are going to be the shortest episodes there can be, how was it as an actor to come around such a format?

Can you imagine this? We used to do one episode which lasted 20-30 minutes, here, the entire series gets done in that time. Of course, it was technically very challenging because you can't exceed that one minute, so capturing everything in a minute was difficult, but we creatively discussed everything when we went ahead. Again, there since it is something new, there is always a little bit of nervousness, but there's also excited to do something new, but the fact that it was something like this, which I haven't done before, one will only understand it when they do it themselves. 

The kind of content that you have, there's a fine line between people who you want must watch the show and those who will be watching it. How do you think will the content reach out to the right people?

I will give you an example, as soon as the promo release, I got a text from a very close friend of mine saying that 'Hey, I got really touched because I am pregnant and it was an accidental pregnancy and we are going ahead with the child.' I was like what are you saying, so she was very touched by that promo because of the content of the promo. I am not involved with anybody or I am not married to know anything, I am sure married couples know it better, it is very different when they go through it when they know they want to have a child v/s when they had an accidental pregnancy and they want to keep the child, so I am sure there's a slight difference. We have a niche audience for this, but maybe everyone won't relate to it, but the journey of the series is also very fun-loving, and a layer of other segments.

Anything coming up on TV right now?

I am giving auditions very selectively, not doing anything currently, but I started auditioning properly just 2-3 months back, so let's see if there's something exciting on any platform, I would definitely give that a shot.

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