Long before stepping into the world of sci-fi storytelling, Ashish Chanchlani had already built a massive digital empire through his popular comedy sketches on YouTube. With millions of followers and viral videos that often dominate the platform, the creator has consistently experimented with content formats. But with his new sci-fi series Ekaki, Ashish has gone a step further, building an entire world of his own while taking on multiple responsibilities as the producer, director and actor of the project.
In a candid conversation with Hindustan Times, Ashish spoke about the overwhelming response to the show’s latest episode, which crossed over a crore views within 24 hours, and how the success has encouraged him to take even bigger creative risks. He also talked about the show’s budget and hiring the best action team for the best results.
Ashish Chanchlani reflects on the success of Ekaki
Talking about the performance of long-form content online, Ashish admitted that the success of Ekaki came as a pleasant surprise. He talked about the show finale episode getting 20 million views and said, “The only thing that came to my mind was how grateful I am because long form in India, and actually everywhere in the world, is not working right now. If you compare the numbers, except creators like MrBeast and IShowSpeed, not many are killing it with long-form videos. In India too, only a few creators are doing well. Sketch comedy main numbers aa hi nahi rahe hain (Sketch comedy is not getting numbers). So I was very happy.”
According to him, the key lies in staying honest to the audience. “If you have a loyal audience and you work very hard to give them something new, the result always comes. The only thing that has changed for me now is that I will take even more risks. Risk always rewards you. It’s a big gamble, but success doesn’t affect me in the same way that failure does. If you lose honesty towards your work even for one day, it shows up in your content and people notice that.”
Ashish Chanchlani reveals the budget of Ekaki
However, bringing Ekaki to life wasn’t easy, especially financially. Ashish revealed that the budget of the series ended up being equal to the cult horror film Tumbbad, which was reportedly made for around ₹15 crores. “Yes, if we look at the budget of Ekaki, it is in that range where Tumbbad was made,” he said. Recalling the financial struggles, he said, “We printed a sheet and wrote down the cost, calculating how much it would take to shoot each day. But even if one extra day gets added to the shoot, it costs at least. ₹5–6 lakh per day. We had made a detailed cost sheet for each day of shooting, but our budget went out of control in the very first schedule.”
That’s when the creator had to take a leap of faith. “I remember calling my bank from Nashik and telling them I needed a loan immediately. I told them I had been a very good customer,” he recalled with a laugh.
Ashish Chanchlani on keeping action in Ekaki interesting and realistic
Action was another area where Ashish wanted to push the boundaries. The sci-fi narrative features an alien with telekinetic powers, and the team worked extensively on creating realistic yet high-stakes action sequences. “I love action which feels realistic but where the stakes are very high. I wanted the alien to be very interesting, with telekinetic powers, almost like an invisible force but with some texture to it. I wanted to make telekinesis look cool, so we did a lot of wire work,” he explained.
For the action sequences, Ashish collaborated with professionals from Force Square, a team that has also worked on the upcoming mythological epic Ramayana. “They told me that the wire work in Ekaki was just as challenging as what they were doing in Ramayana. On some days, my action director would say it felt even more tedious here because we had to lift seven characters into the air, throw them from one side to another and coordinate everything perfectly,” Ashish shared. The experience even pushed him to train physically. “I learned action myself during the process. I used to be a motu sa baccha (a chubby kid), I didn’t even know how to kick,” he said, laughing.
With Ekaki, Ashish believes he has only just begun exploring the possibilities of long-form storytelling on digital platforms. And if the response to the series is any indication, his gamble on ambition, scale and originality may have paid off.
