Vivaan Shah: Difficult to find accommodation for single boys

Vivaan Shah (Picture courtesy/AFP)

The '7 Khoon Maaf' fame actor Vivaan Shah, who is playing the lead role in the new web series "Only For Singles", says that many of his single friends faced obstacles in finding accommodation, as we are majorly living in a conservative society where many landlords have prejudices to rent out apartments to bachelors.

The story of the show is based on a bunch of friends who are single and the problems they struggle with in daily life, he was asked about one of the major problems that single boys and girls face.

Vivaan told IANS, "I did not face any problem as such directly but I have seen how my friends, who are single, found it difficult to get accommodations, especially in Delhi. I studied in Delhi. In few places of Delhi, landlords have prejudices to rent out their places to Muslims."

"So few of my friends who had Muslim names, they would be denied accommodation, when the house owner would get to know their name. Since my name is Vivaan, which sounds quite secular, I did not face any problem," added the son of veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah.

He also said that in comparison to any other city, Mumbai is very expensive to live for any independent working man or woman.

Vivaan is playing the character of a budding graphic novel artist who is also doing a 9 to 5 job. The actor believes that the show that has started streaming on MX Player from June 28, is very relatable for millennials. From the trailer of the show, it looks like it has influence from a few American shows like 'Friends' and others.

Asked if most of the web series are somewhere replicating the western shows rather than finding the original style of storytelling, Vivaan said, " I agree with that point. We should use the format of web series and tell our own, original stories. But we have to understand that this is a new format that our audience has started accepting and the makes are mostly grown up watching those shows. So the influence is only natural."

"Having said that I think it is the starting phase and within five years, people will break through that mould and tell these stories in an Indian way. We will find our originality for now, the young crowd enjoys watching them because of its relatability," he explained.

The show "Only For Singles" also features Pooja Banerjee, Deepti Sathi, Aman Uppal, Shirin Sewani among others.

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