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A New Web Series Discusses Burning Issues Over Several Shots Of Alcohol

A New Web Series Discusses Burning Issues Over Several Shots Of Alcohol

Have you ever had a discussion with a friend or acquaintance over a burning political issue over drinks that has ended up turning... somewhat intense? That's the premise of a new web series called Daaru Pe Charcha by YouTube channel Screen Patti.

In the first episode uploaded last Friday, the show (whose title is a play on PM Narendra Modi's 'Chai Pe Charcha', which similarly involves discussions on significant issues) 'invited' controversial FTII chairman Gajendra Chauhan for a frank discussion about the controversy surrounding his appointment. It wasn't the real Chauhan, of course — it was a parody of the man, portrayed by character actor Rajesh Sharma (who was most recently seen in Bajrangi Bhaijaan).

"The idea is to break down issues in a manner that is easy for people to understand in a manner that is familiar for them," says Abhishek Banerjee, who is co-writing and directing the series. In the first episode, the host Jitendra (actor-comedian Jitendra Kumar, who regularly appears in The Viral Fever's videos) refers to alcohol as a "truth serum" and insists that the show is about finding out what is true and what isn't. As his interview with Chauhan progresses, Jitendra gets visibly agitated and starts counter-questioning him passionately in a manner that would be unbecoming of a respectable TV journalist.

"It's not actually alcohol; we've used apple juice, of course," says Banerjee, with a laugh. "But the idea is to use it as a means to say out loud what we're all thinking about a particular issue."

Daaru Pe Charcha will be a monthly series, with the next one focusing on getting Jitendra to interview a fictitious character named Mr Ban — a reference to the sundry bans that the government seems to impose at regular intervals (the latest one being pornographic websites, which were banned and un-banned within the space of a few days).

Watch the first episode of Daaru Pe Charcha — which has so far received nearly 1 lakh views on YouTube — above.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.