It is my 21st year in the movies and (there was) another decade in fashion. So I have been working for three decades now,” Rahul Dev announces in his baritone voice. The model-turned-actor has his plate full, being among the first to return to work post-lockdown. He speaks to The Telegrpah ahead of LSD: Love, Scandal & Doctors, dropping on Zee5 and Alt Balaji.

From the trailer of Love, Scandal & Doctors, the show seems to be a medical thriller. Is that so?

I don’t know if I can specify the genre because it has everything. Of course the backdrop is medical. It is more of mystery. Some interns join a hospital, a murder takes place, there’s police intervention and the story is about then what happens.

What is your role in the show?

I play the dean of a hospital with a big reputation. Because of the murder, its reputation is tarnished. For the dean, the situation is out of control. He is a great doctor, but something else as a human being. It is a short but very important part.

When did you shoot?

We finished shooting it in January. These days, with technology, it does not take long. The edits were lined up even as we shot. It’s fresh, almost like ordering food from the kitchen! I think the shoot had started in November.

Is the industry fully back on rails in terms of production work?

Everything is fully rolling. I had a film release in December on Netflix called Torbaaz (co-starring Sanjay Dutt). I have another film release in March called Raat Baki Hai.

Raat Baki Hai was supposed to release in November but got postponed.

You see, with everything releasing on OTT, the makers try to ensure that their own products do not clash with each other. It’s like feature films releasing on the same date. If I have three products releasing in the same month, I would want each of them to get adequate space. Otherwise, people get confused which to watch. The business is about subscriptions now.

From the trailer, Raat Baki Hai seems to be about a murder in a heritage hotel.

It’s a whodunit over a night. I play a cop who cracks it. You will find it in the more believable space. We shot close to Ranthambhore, in Maharaja Gaj Singh’s palace which is now a heritage hotel. It was a start-to-end film, shot over 20-odd days. We got to taste bajre ki roti and dal and beautiful Rajasthani cuisine. There was no television in the hotel. It’s usually full of goras who come to experience country life. I had gone there on a school trip too. Only we didn’t get to stay in a palace (laughs). I have some great memories there from my modelling days too. My honeymoon was also in Rajasthan.

How was the shooting experience?

It was great fun. We shot all night. The murder happens in the evening. The investigation took place at night. My character, an IPS officer, is supposed to be blue blood. He is a Suryavanshi Jat. Some of them believe they are descendants of Ram. I put in a little bit of colloquial Haryanvi. Not that my Haryanvi is very good, but coincidentally I had played a character from Haryana in a film earlier in the year for which the producer and crew were hardcore Haryanvis.

Rahul Dev with his co-stars playing five hospital interns in a poster of LSD , currently streaming on Zee5 and Alt Balaji Sourced by the correspondent

Was that your first project after the lockdown?

Yes. That film is yet to be released. It’s a mindless comedy — spoofy and full of gags. We shot it in end-June at Gaj Resorts, close to Hoshiyarpur. That was my first flight after lockdown — travelling in a mask, getting screened at the airport, then being stamped on the palm on returning to Mumbai.

Did you get to know Paoli Dam in Raat Baki Hai?

We had just one day of overlapping work. The night I arrived was the only scene I had with her. My investigation leads to the place where she is residing. The whole shoot was a little over three weeks. We shot in September-October.

And the trailer was out in November!

Yes. Nowadays, it’s all sync sound. As I was saying, the edit goes side by side. When I started out in the movies, in 2000 with Champion, films were shot on negative. As an actor, you had a few more butterflies in your tummy when the director said ‘action’ as you also got to hear the whirr of the film rolling. Rehearsals used to take place, as exposing and developing films cost money. Now you do a take straightaway and take as many times as you want to.

Some film-makers are still holding their ready products back, hoping for a proper theatrical release. Do you expect all films to release in halls again or will OTT release remain an option?

If you do something for a year, it becomes a habit. Fortunately or unfortunately, during the lockdown many of us have got into this habit of watching films at home. I personally love watching films in theatres. But I am not sure what the country is thinking. Some might still not be comfortable sending their children to the theatre. People go to the theatre when they are in the mood for a film. Theatre ka jo mazaa hain, ghar mein kahaan hain? But at home, if you want to watch something, it takes half an hour to decide what you want to see as there are so many options on OTT, and even then you might not watch the whole film. In theatres, even if it’s a bad film you usually watch the full thing.

As an actor, which kind of release do you prefer?

I am grateful Torbaaz went to 193 countries by releasing on Netflix — it was trending at world No. 8 and in the UK and Pakistan, it was going No. 1 among the Netflix films, even in India, it stayed at No.1 for two weeks. But it had fantastic visuals, if the medium one watches on is a phone screen, much of that is lost. Also, expressions on faces of actors in long shot, mujhe lagta nahin audience pakad payega. Only close-up shots would work. But imagine spending the lockdown without OTT! It would have been difficult.

When the lockdown was announced, did any project of yours get stalled?

On February 28, my film Operation Parindey released. It was directed by Sanjay Gadhvi, who made the first two Dhoom films and Kidnap. It was about the Nabha jail break. Then just before the lockdown, we wrapped up the second schedule for Mughals in Jaipur. Someone told us in the hotel that two Italian tourists had got infected with something called coronavirus. The first cases in India, if you recall, were in Jaipur. Then we figured out it’s a big thing in Italy. But it seemed distant. I was dubbing for Who’s Your Daddy when the lockdown happened. Both seasons released during the lockdown. Even during lockdown, we took special permission and shot for Poison. I was given a special pass. I suffered a shoulder injury on the sets during an action sequence and had to take a four-week break. After that, I went back to finish work on Poison and the other projects.

So your schedule hardly gave you time to reflect on life.

Life is like a swing, a collection of experiences. This virus has taught us to be careful about health, which I always was. I am a vegetarian, I don’t drink or smoke. Friends tell me: ‘Rahul, tu toh strong hain. Tujhe kuch nahin hoga’. But in front of a pandemic, I am as fragile as the next man. We never expected something that would make the world stop and it taught us not to take life for granted. I got a blow earlier in life when my wife died in 2009. She had cancer. My son Siddharth was very small. I left movies for four-and-a-half years and went to Delhi. Then life became good again. I went back to work. Siddharth went to England to study. Even if this virus has come as a jolt, we should be thankful if friends and family are safe.

I had to see how my mother was doing in Delhi. She lost her husband last year, at 91. My 21-year-old son is with her but he has not seen life. Yes, like millions of other people, I have suffered monetory losses sitting at home. But what matters now is I am safe and so are they.