It was great bossing all my co-actors during the shoot: Waluscha De Sousa on her 'Escaype Live' character

MUMBAI: Waluscha De Sousa is portraying a modern-age, career-oriented woman, Jia Bose, in "Escaype Live", which has been created and directed by Siddharth Kumar Tewary and is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. The actress revealed that though the character was extremely opposite to her real self, she instantly connected to it and enjoyed doing it.

"I was very happy to play Jia. When the series was narrated to me I instantly connected with her and I could see myself bringing her to life. A modern-day, 21st-century strong woman, who is committed to her work, for her business is everything, she's able to put her emotions on the side, gives the job all that it requires, and knows exactly how to keep the empire going. It was really exciting to play the character. I am an introvert and Jia is just the opposite of who I am and it was thrilling. It was great bossing all my co-actors around on set while shooting. I must say that made my day and I took utmost pleasure in that. It was a great journey with Jia," she said.

The series revolves around the madness created by the social media world, and the actress feels that the story is very relevant in today's time. She said, "This web series is a social thriller and it is for the first time this space has been explored. I think it is the right time for a subject like this. It holds more relevance in our lives now more than ever because the lockdown brought us together and I think everybody flocked to social media to stay connected and understand what's going on in the world," she said, adding that people unintentionally made a relationship with social media during that time.

"It became this deep-rooted relationship that we established with social media and therefore each and every one of us from different age groups is going to be able to relate to the series. We had kids on social media, we had young children getting online with their schools and with information that they needed to source from online portals, and we had the older generation on social platforms just to stay connected with people that they couldn't meet over a period of time. So everybody developed this relationship and this topic is more relevant now than it's ever been before and therefore something that everybody would relate to," Waluscha said.

Heaping praise on the writer-producer-director, she said, "He is one of the nicest and most genuine people I have ever met. He is so patient and so giving. He worked with every actor with such diligence and made each of us feel so special. He worked with our strengths and brought that out onto the screen. As a director, he is so clear in his head about what he wants. He would patiently sit with each one of us and get our understanding into what we thought the scene demanded of us or where it was going from here, or what my character demanded."

"He patiently sat and wanted to hear our point of view, but then very nicely made us follow through on his vision. So it was not an easy series to direct, considering that there are so many parallel stories that eventually unfold in this one mega office. There were so many actors coming together and it's an ambitious project that he's put together. Hats off to him for dealing with so much pressure. I'm just excited for Siddharth," Waluscha concluded.