Ankur Rathee works with Jim Sarbh’s invisible presence in a Netflix Show

“I know from working with Jim on Taish that he loves improv”, says Actor Ankur Rathee

Actor Ankur Rathee is currently juggling between the promotions of Undekhi season 2 and Netflix’s Eternally Confused and Eager for Love. In ECEL, Ankur plays the role of Varun, a former “lady’s man” now about to tie the knot, but that doesn’t stop him from living the single life vicariously through his friend Ray’s romantic escapades and dating app chat messages. The actor spoke about his role and performance on sets.

Ankur said, “On set doing scenes with an imaginary wizard became challenging at times. Vihaan and I would be having a conversation and suddenly I’d hear the voice of comedian Azeem Banatwalla say some line (he helped write for Wiz) and I’d have to ignore it because the voice is only in Vihaan’s head. I’d have to justify my silence in the middle of our conversation and then pick back up after Wiz’s line.

It was all a little bananas and I wondered how it would all fit together in the edit. But when I saw the show I couldn’t stop laughing. It really worked! And Jim Sarbh as the voice of Wiz made the scenes pop even more. I know from working with Jim on Taish that he loves improv and I could tell he definitely added some lines that weren’t there before. His additions made the scenes even funnier.”

Ray played by Vihaan Samat is an awkward young man who is navigating adulthood and the daunting world of romance in the 21st century. He does this with the help of ‘Wiz’, a personification of Ray’s inner voice, who tells us what Ray cannot say out loud. The show stars Vihaan Samat, Rahul Bose, Ankur Rathee Suchitra Pillai and Jim Sarbh. The comedy-drama is produced by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s Tiger Baby Films and Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment for Netflix.