Call My Agent! — the smash-hit French series (also called Dix pour cent), which sees a team of casting agents and managers hustling every day for their celebrity clients even as they navigate through their own personal lives — has now been officially adapted into Hindi.

Named Call My Agent: Bollywood and directed by Saathiya man Shaad Ali, the series stars Rajat Kapoor, Aahana Kumra, Soni Razdan and Ayush Mehra as principal characters, with many famous faces popping in to play themselves.

Ahead of its premiere on Netflix on October 29, t2 caught up for a freewheeling chat with Soni Razdan, Aahana Kumra and Ayush Mehra on their show and the world of actors and agents.

What was it like to play agents, and be on the other side of the fence, so to speak?

Aahana Kumra: I started out as a casting agent to Shanoo (Sharma of Yash Raj Films). I have worked as an AD (assistant director), as a production assistant, I have even managed my own career at the beginning.... So I don’t think any of us are very new to this world of managers and agents. In India, there is little or no understanding of the work of an agent. I think it’s a sort of a managerial structure we work with. Anyone who has ever worked in the film industry understands how it is to hustle for their own work (smiles).

On Call My Agent: Bollywood, what’s interesting is that we were hustling for stars who are already established. It was nice to jam with all the co-actors that we had because I think in this show, we really didn’t get time to think that, ‘Maine yeh scene kaise kiya hota?’ We were shooting very fast because Shaad (Ali, director) tends to shoot very fast and we were quickly moving from one scene to the next. We had absolutely no time to process. And that’s why all of us are now very curious to see how the show has turned out. But yes, I do have more empathy for agents now (laughs).

Soni Razdan: Unlike Aahana, I hadn’t done any AD-ing or anything... I had gone straight to acting. When I started out, there were no agents or management companies the way it is today. There were no casting directors. It was so disorganised... I had a manager I couldn’t relate to at all... potbellied and wearing some strange white clothes! (Laughs) I could also understand him not being able to relate to me.

Today, I see my daughter’s (Alia Bhatt) career and her management team and so for me, this show was very interesting. The first thing I told Alia’s manager was, ‘Listen, I am playing you! Okay, a much older version!’ (Laughs) But I don’t think I thought too much about it, to be honest. My character (Treasa Matthews) is a doyenne of the business, and she would have also started out at the time when there were only male managers. But we all know how it is for agents in this business, because we all work very closely together. But I must also say that I have been a director and I do know how it is to ‘deal’ with actors (smiles). And for the first time, I realised, ‘Oh my God, how difficult can actors be!’ (Laughs)

Ayush Mehra: For me, it was not too different. I was also an AD for four years, and then I started to manage myself. I had heard a lot of myths about agencies... that if you join an agency, they take a cut. And then your rates will increase and people won’t hire you! So, I really didn’t know what to do, man!

You learn the hard way, and this show is primarily meant to be for people like this because we never started with any agencies, we started on our own. Rajat sir (Kapoor, who plays Monty Behl) doesn’t even have a phone, forget an agent! (Everyone laughs) Doing this show was fun because we got to manage some big stars who were playing themselves.

How much do each of you rely on your agents now?

Ayush: Now, a lot! Back then when we didn’t have them, we didn’t need them. Now that we do, we really need them (smiles).

Soni: It’s a very synergistic relationship. You need someone who gets you and who knows what you are about. That’s the key to a successful agent-actor partnership. It’s very important to have that understanding.

Aahana: I think they become your parents in a way. They literally handhold us while making decisions, sometimes which you may take in a wrong way....

Ayush: Oh please, Aahana doesn’t even listen to half of them!

Aahana: My manager fights with me a lot because I don’t listen to her! I am mostly like, ‘Main khud ki karungi’. But I need someone like her to sit on my head and tell me, ‘No, this should be done!’ In fact, I even had to be pushed to do Call My Agent (laughs). I shouldn’t really be saying this, but it’s true! That’s because I had no idea what the show was. And I was told, ‘No, it’s a really important show! You have to give a good audition’.

Soni and Ayush, had you watched the French original before you plunged into this show?

Soni: I did, in fact I watched it during the lockdown last year. It was long before I was offered the show and I was so enamoured with it. I couldn’t stop watching it and I was so glad it had so many seasons! I fell in love with it, and when I was offered the show, I was so excited because the French original is so beautifully made.

Ayush: I hadn’t even heard of the original or watched it. When I got a call for the audition, I was told that there is a show called Call My Agent! on Netflix and that if I watched the first episode, I would get the vibe of the show. I auditioned and I didn’t get a call back. I was like, ‘Fair enough’ and I started watching the French show... and then I just watched it all! (Laughs) And I was like, ‘Man, I should have given this audition a little more seriously!’

(Everyone laughs)

Somehow, I had thought I wouldn’t get the part because Gabriel (the character on the French show that Ayush’s Mehershad Sodawala is based on) is a little older. And I was like, ‘I should have done this, I should have done that in the audition’. But thankfully, I got the part.

All the characters you play are quirky and individualistic. Did anything about them strike a chord with you?

Aahana: It’s scary, I am so similar to Amal! Soni and I discussed on the phone and literally decided then that we were doing the show. It was literally that one phone call! And when I saw Ayush doing the costume trials, I was like, ‘Oh my God! He looks so much like Gabriel!

Ayush: That’s the first thing she told me. And I was like, ‘What?! I look that old?!’

Aahana: I was shocked that they got such a strikingly similar cast. And after watching Andrea (Amal’s counterpart in the original) and when I was reading Amal’s scenes, I was like, ‘Oh my God! This is Amal’s temperament. If I was someone’s agent, I would be like Andrea. She’s an absolute go-getter who doesn’t listen to anybody, she knows it all... she’s cunning but also smart in her own way.

Soni: Outwardly, I am very different from Arlette, on whom my character is based. On this show, I am styled very uniquely, which also excited me a lot. I thought I would have to play a casually dressed lady, but I was surprised by the very elegant, yesteryear look they gave me. That was also a clincher for me. It gave Treasa a different lift and lilt. She’s the mothership of the company.

Ayush: Mehershad is very honest and gives it his all. In that sense, I could connect with him. And, in fact, Shaad sir told me that a major reason why I was chosen for the part is that I didn’t look chalu! (Everyone laughs)