Exclusive: Code Name Abdul: Ashok Chaudhary talks about Tanishaa Mukerji's comeback and called the google ratings 'mainuplative' read on to know why

Yet another spy thriller, Code Name Abdul has been released. Tanishaa Mukerji is making her comeback with the film directed by Eshwar Gunturu. The film revolves around the mission given to RAW. The film features Ashok Chaudhary, Khetra Hakimi, Sumend Wankhede, and Anshuman Sharma. We exclusively spoke to Ashok Chaudhary. Ashok is playing the role of Stalin in the film.

Here are some excerpts from the conversation:

Ashok Chaudhary

1 Tanishaa Mukerji is making a comeback with Code Name Abdul, How was your experience working with her?

Tanisha made a fantastic comeback with Code Name Abdul. She is a very fine actress and a gentle human being too, we had meals together on the set and we overall had a very good time together.

2 We have seen many mystery thriller stories, so what was your reason to join this?

Why did I choose this film?
My Character Stalin has a perfect layered complexity as a newcomer from outside of the industry and it's a perfect opportunity. The script has the right pace and attention to detail. I read the script in one sitting and no one can guess the ending. This movie is still open for interpretation and still, we don't have the answers to the questions. The viewers will keep talking about the story and my character on their way back drive to home from the theater. For this film, I was doing my work, I wasn't afraid to look stupid and over smart for the character. In this movie, I had to embrace the inner complexity of my life all over again. For this kind of character, I told everyone on set to call me Stalin.

3 The film has managed to get great ratings but on the other hand, in the reviews, people are pointing towards the cast for their mediocre performance, what's your take on that?

I am new to the film medium but not to acting. I have been trained under the best schools over the globe. You know your strengths and weakness when you do off-Broadway shows in a city like Manhattan art house. For me, a bad review is a much better copy than a good review. I have been writing down in my notebook all the things I need to work on for my next project. And there’s the issue that critics review movies for a living, the casual audience reviews movies if and when they feel like it. The audience that likes some small, low-budget, guilty pleasure film may be small, but they’re also likely to be more vocal and likely to go give it a positive rating on google, IMDb. So, you may be seeing bad films getting an artificial uplift in audience score there, simply because the audience reviews are self-selected. I’ve noticed a similar trend. the people who rate it are the people who bought it, which means the audience scores are almost always artificially inflated, I am not bothered with it, and you’re polling an objectively inferior product because it hits their particular tastes.

I would guess that higher-budget films tend to be produced in such a way as to please the largest number of people (to recoup their budget), whereas lower-end films are inherently a more niche product. USA and French New Wave style experimental films, indie arthouse darlings, and ‘socially aware’ films produced on a shoestring may share the category of ‘low budget’. Speaking very broadly, Critics are going to be pretty harsh on ‘guilty pleasure’ films, especially those with retrograde or exploitative themes, which have many new faces. if they didn’t enjoy it, but they should admire its experimental effort to advance the medium of film as an art form or sentiments to that effect.
Another issue may be big movies tend to be broadly appealing, but the niche of the films that do well with affluent, well-educated people from small and different regions are going to disproportionately please critics.