Actor Karan Kundrra hosts Dating Aaj Kal, an interactive dating show on Flipkart Video, that launches today. Over the course of 30 episodes, the show will have 10 girls, wherein over three episodes, one girl will find her ‘perfect’ match as five boys try their luck to find their way to her heart. A chat with Karan on the show and how dating has changed from then to now.

What is it about Dating Aaj Kal that made you sign on?

The idea itself hasn’t been done before on Indian television. It’s the first time that an interactive dating show is going to be seen by Indian audiences. There are so many reality shows that have not worked on their format or tried to evolve — they may have just tweaked it here and there — but the audiences haven’t seen something new and revolutionary in at least 20 years. That’s something that I wished would happen, and with Flipkart Video, that has happened. That’s why it’s a very exciting format for me.

Dating has changed, people have changed, it’s 2021. We need to evolve, and I think it needs a lot of courage to come up with something new like this, and have the conviction that, ‘Yes, we are going to do it’. It’s pathbreaking and I loved the idea from the beginning of the conversation. Now we have a complete show and we are very proud of it.

Given that it’s an interactive show, what’s gone into adapting to this new way of hosting?

It’s not just the interactive part, it’s also the pace of the show. It’s a very fast and furious kind of show, which is the pace of dating, or for that matter anything else, in 2021. We’ve had a lot of challenges last year. We have limited ourselves to how much we can socialise, how much we can go out, there are no concerts happening, we are very scared to step into a place where we would meet a lot of people.... So a lot of things have gone online, and that’s where this show steps in. This show keeps in mind all these changes, and all these scenarios that have happened over the last few months.

The challenges were that I haven’t been a part of something like this before. The pace that we work at otherwise is quite comfortable (laughs) compared to Dating Aaj Kal. It’s challenging because the idea of dating and romance has changed in the last one year, and this show recognises and accommodates that. It’s a fast-paced world, people are swiping left, right and centre. We have way more options now in terms of dating than we did. It’s a current show, it’s a new show, and so yes, adapting was a bit of a challenge. But because we worked so much on it before going live... we had meetings after meetings on Zoom, we did a lot of back and forth on the concept and the format. We all got together to understand the show well and shot seamlessly.

How have you seen dating evolve since your college days?

We would meet a lot of people at inter-college fests, in concerts where young people used to socialise. But that has drastically changed with people being more online and on dating apps. Now you could be interacting with someone who is probably thousands and thousands of miles away, and you could have amazing chemistry with that person. The world is now much faster, we had a more laidback sort of approach to life. Technology has changed, and so has human response to technology.

Are there any dating tips you can give to young people today?

I would say participate in this show because here we take all the filters out of the pictures, we take out the hiding-behind-the-profile pictures and bios and we put people face to face. On the show, we also talk about perfect dates and the dos and don’ts of dating.

What has year 2020 been like for you?

A lot of introspection, a lot of family time, thankfully. I have learnt a lot of life lessons. Before the lockdown, I was shooting for a show and a film in different cities and so I was doing a lot of back and forth. The lockdown forced a lot of us to spend time with ourselves and I think that is a very important thing to do. You can’t even fathom what all you realise about life when you are alone. I have understood the value of so many things that we take for granted. My family has really been supportive and I have spent quality time with them during the lockdown, and also after that.

You had a film release in Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare last year. What’s the road ahead looking like?

The last 11 years have been a crazy run. I was very lucky to have had an overnight success launch with Kitani Mohabbat Hai (produced by Ekta Kapoor). I have also been fortunate to be part of a lot of different things... from fiction to reality to travel to web to films.... After Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare, I have finished two more films before and after the lockdown and they are slated to release this year.