Ashish Chanchlani on ‘Ekaki’: 'Budget was like ‘Tumbbad’,' says team behind ‘Ramayana’ worked on action scenes of the series

Digital creator Ashish Chanchlani, who rose to fame through his widely watched YouTube comedy sketches, has taken a major leap with his sci-fi series ‘Ekaki’. Known for experimenting with formats on his channel, the content creator has now stepped into large-scale storytelling, not only acting in the project but also directing and producing it.In a recent conversation with Hindustan Times, Ashish opened up about the response to the show, the risks involved in creating long-form content online, and the surprisingly large budget behind the ambitious project. He also revealed that the action sequences were handled by a professional team associated with the upcoming epic ‘Ramayana’.Talking about how audiences reacted to the series finale, Ashish admitted that the strong viewership came as an unexpected yet welcome surprise.

The final episode of ‘Ekaki’ reportedly crossed 20 million views within a short span of time.Reflecting on the performance of long-format content on digital platforms, he 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.”

He further added that even in India, only a handful of creators are successfully drawing audiences to longer videos. “Sketch comedy main numbers aa hi nahi rahe hain (Sketch comedy is not getting numbers). So I was very happy.”According to Ashish, authenticity remains the most important factor when creating content online. “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.

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‘Ekaki’ budget comparable to ‘Tumbbad’

While the series has received praise for its scale and visuals, Ashish revealed that producing ‘Ekaki’ was financially challenging.

He shared that the project’s budget eventually reached the same range as the critically acclaimed film ‘Tumbbad’, which was reportedly made for around Rs 15 crore. “Yes, if we look at the budget of ‘Ekaki’, it is in that range where ‘Tumbbad’ was made,” he said.Recalling the production hurdles, Ashish explained how the team tried to plan every expense carefully, but costs quickly escalated once filming began. “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 Rs 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,” he shared.

The action team from ‘Ramayana’ worked on the series

To ensure the action scenes looked convincing, Ashish collaborated with Force Square, a professional stunt team currently working on the much-anticipated film ‘Ramayana’. He revealed that the team found the action choreography in ‘Ekaki’ surprisingly demanding.“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 explained.The experience also pushed him to undergo physical training so he could perform the sequences convincingly.

“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 with a laugh.

Taking bigger creative risks

With ‘Ekaki’, Ashish Chanchlani has ventured beyond short comedic sketches into a more cinematic style of storytelling. By investing heavily in production scale and experimenting with sci-fi elements, he believes he is only beginning to explore what long-form digital content can achieve.