SonyLIV’s Scam 1992 has been a phenomenal success for the platform, and for Indian OTT. It has found a place in the list of top-rated shows on IMDb. Harshad Mehta and his massive stock market scam have caught the attention of viewers like never before. Viewers are loving everything about Scam 1992 – its superb casting, Hansal Mehta’s deft direction, and most significantly, the performances of the primary cast. Pratik Gandhi’s Harshad Mehta turn, and Shreya Dhanwanthary’s portrayal of journalist Sucheta Dalal have come in for special praise.
In the wake of the success of Scam 1992, many are sounding the death-knell of its rival of sorts – Disney Plus Hotstar’s upcoming The Big Bull. Twitterati has broken into two factions. On the one hand are those that think Abhishek Bachchan, who portrays Harshad Mehta in The Big Bull, will not be able to stand up to Pratik Gandhi’s fluid performance. And on the other side are those that think Abhishek Bachchan will excel in the role and pull it off magnificently. They’ve been reminding everyone that cares to listen of his take on Dhirubhai Ambani in Guru.
Well, our take is slightly different. For one, we believe that it is silly to compare a series with a film. Scam 1992 is a ten-episode series, each episode almost an hour long. It thus has all the time in the world to tell its story – languidly, thoroughly and exhaustively. It can afford to go into depth and detail, lend an immersive quality to the storytelling. The Big Bull, on the other hand, is a film, with only two odd hours at its disposal – to chronicle Harshad Mehta’s rise, fall and everything else in between, and leave a lasting impact. It is quite obvious that viewers will be less invested in the 2-hour film than they were in the ten-hour series. After all, it is to be expected — they will have invested more of their time and effort in the latter too.
That said, we think that the success of Scam 1992 portends well for The Big Bull. Viewers, especially of the current millennial generation, have become aware of the scam — something they were unaware of before. More significantly, viewers are very very curious to see how the film ‘The Big Bull’ will tell the same story in a shorter crisper style.
Chiefly, Abhishek Bachchan is the pivot point, the star attraction. The actor is known to be magnetic in dark, intense roles – it is virtually his playground, his comfort zone, his primary field of endeavour. Yes, Abhishek Bachchan will be a force to reckon with, in The Big Bull.
One thing about the whole rivalry is truly heartwarming – as viewers and publications debate and spar over the two, the cast and crew of both have been immensely encouraging and appreciative of each other. Abhishek Bachchan was all heart as he showers sincere and fulsome praise on Hansal Mehta, Pratik Gandhi, Shreya Dhanwanthary and the others, for their brilliant show. Hansal Mehta reciprocated Abhishek’s largeheartedness with a super-cool gesture of his own – he posted a picture on Twitter, with him wearing a T-shirt with The Big Bull emblazoned across it in bold. He also captioned it – “This is for you, Junior Bachchan”.
Check out Hansal Mehta’s Twitter post here –
All said and done, we think the buzz around The Big Bull is huge and it will definitely be a huge success, most of it because of Abhishek Bachchan. We can even imagine him playing Harshad Mehta to perfection. Rest, we’ll just have to wait for The Big Bull to land on Disney Plus Hotstar to find out!
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