As the second season of Little Things — a slice-of-life drama revolving around a young unmarried couple living in Mumbai — approaches its worldwide Netflix release on October 5, actors Mithila Palkar and Dhruv Sehgal (who has also written the show), get candid about the web mini-series and each other.
What is Little Things 2 about?
Mithila: Everybody has to grow at some point. It’s just that the pace at which you do is probably different. But you grow, your relationship grows and that’s where you start struggling because it may be that you (and your partner) are not growing at the same pace or in the same direction.
When you were shooting for season 1, did you anticipate that there’d be a second season?
Dhruv: It started off as a small experiment. Producers Ashwin (Suresh) and Anirudh (Pandita) asked me to write a small episode of about seven minutes with the two of us in a room. That eventually became Little Things 1.
Mithila: It was overwhelming to have received the love and support that we did for this show. When the first season was coming out, we had already got scripts for the next season. Fans were writing to us, saying ‘you should do this next’. That kind of involvement was just amazing.
What was the one overriding thing on your mind while shooting this season?
Dhruv: We didn’t want to extend the same show. We wanted to make its second part. So we were very conscious about letting the characters grow and see what happens then. The idea was to not stop them from growing.
What has changed since Netflix came on board?
Dhruv: The show looks different. It feels different.
Mithila: It’s extremely exciting just to know that we are going to be viewed in 190 countries. It has opened gates to 130 million subscribers that Netflix has. The show is getting dubbed in five languages. The magnitude of it has suddenly changed.
Dhruv: But the intention is still the same—to tell an honest story about two people. That will never change.
What goes behind writing the episodes? How much of it is autobiographical?
Dhruv: A lot of it is. It is just observation, making a note of things that resonate, stay with you, and figuring out a nice, entertaining way of saying it to millions of people.
Though it’s a show about relationships, Little Things doesn’t really have a plot. How easy or difficult is it to write about nothing in particular?
Dhruv: The difficult bit is to resist the temptation of creating a conflict. You want to do it but then you hold back. It’s all about finding your own rhythm in your everydayness and getting attached to it. Once you have that, the rest flows, comes organically.
How has it been for the two of you professionally since the first season became a hit two years ago?
Mithila: It’s been fantastic. In a sense, we were put on the map because of Little Things. That’s how we started getting recognised. A lot of wonderful things have unveiled since. One of my films, Karwaan, just came out. It’s been absolutely surreal.
Dhruv: It’s been exciting. I spend a lot of time writing. So for me, my growth and my experiences, they are coming out alive on October 5.
You have known each other for three years now. Do you see any difference in each other since when you first filmed together?
Mithila: We are getting to know each other only now. We started talking to each other off camera only over this season. We have worked together on a lot of things but we have started sharing things and taking interest in each other’s personal lives only now.
Dhruv: I think having conversations over the script about the show got us closer together. Once we would be done talking about the script, we’d be like ‘Aur bata kya chal raha hai life mein?’
The one thing that irritates you about the other?
Mithila: I don’t get pissed off too easily.
Dhruv: She sings between takes and the songs aren’t based on the scene or to enhance the mood. We’d be having an intense scene, cut and she’d start singing some random song from the ‘90s. I call her cable TV because she sings songs that used to come on cable TV.
What do you think worked for you?
Dhruv: We don’t know that. We’ve never spoken about it.
Mithila: I don’t think we’ve figured it out. And we don’t want to know it. Whatever it is that’s working, let that be.
Watch Dhruv and Mithila talk about the things they like, don’t like and everything in between:
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