Escaype Live is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language television series created and directed by Siddharth Kumar Tewary. It is written by Jaya Misra and Siddharth Kumar Tewary, with dialogues by Vinod Sharma, Amol Surve and Ranveer Pratap Singh. Produced by Siddharth Kumar Tewary under the banner of One Life Studios, the series stars Siddharth, Jaaved Jaaferi, Shweta Tripathi, Sumedh Mudgalkar, Waluscha De Sousa, Plabita Borthakur and Ritvik Sahore. Escaype Live 9 episodes were launched on Disney+Hotstar in two instalments within a week of each other. Episode 1- 7 were dropped on 20 May 2022 and the two - part finale a week later, thereby
successfully engaging their viewers and building curiosity over its content within the week.
Contents
Plot
A live streaming app has announced a contest promising instant fame and fortune to its most popular participant which turns the mundane lives of six regular Indians upside down as their reality begins to change form.
Cast
Siddharth as Krishna Rangaswamy
Jaaved Jaaferi as Ravi Gupta
Shweta Tripathi as Sunaina
Waluscha De Sousa as Gia Bose
Sumedh Mudgalkar as Dark Angel a.k.a. Darkie, Bablu in flash back
Plabita Borthakur as Hina a.k.a. Fetish Girl
Ritvik Sahore as Nilesh Sonawane a.k.a. Aamcha Spider
Aadya Sharma as Rani Singh a.k.a. Dance Rani
Rohit Chandel as Rajkumar a.k.a. Meena
Swastika Mukherjee as Mala
Alekh Sangal as Baldev
Geetika Vidya Ohlyan as Sita
Jagjeet Sandhu as Nandu
Mallika Singh as Shrini Rangaswamy
Aakanksha Singh as Devna
Sharat Saxena as Rajkumar's Father
Sanjay Narvekar as Aamcha's Father
Smita Tambe as Aamcha's Mother
Rajveer Singh Rajput as Contractor
Arundhati Nag as Laxmi Amma
Anagh Jain as Dhruv Bhalla
Ashwin Mushran as Jogi Balla / Dhruv's Father
Aditi Govitrikar as Meenal Bhalla / Dhruv's Mother
Kunal Thakkar as Kunal (CTO)
Khuman as Tashi
Series overview
Release
The trailer of the series was released on 26 April 2022 consisting of seven episodes premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on 20 May 2022 and remaining two episodes were released on 27 May 2022.
Critical reception
The series received high praise for its edgy ideas and concept but critique for its directorial choices. Manik Sharma for Firstpost wrote that "Escaype Live is fascinating for the many ideas it confronts, from gender to identity, from class to the politics of internal borders. And foremost, as a fluid critique of the social media ecosystem that has spawned many fake lives, often at the cost of some original ones. The price paid in the creation of these lives is what Live wants to construct and explore. And for that, it can have all my money." The Binged review for the series states that "Escaype Live has an interesting, relevant-to-the-times premise". Farhad Dalal for popcornreviewss.com wrote that "Escaype Live is a deliciously dark show which exposes the underbelly of social media". Contrastly, Rohan Naahar for The Indian Express opined that "Escaype Live is a monumentally irritating show that talks down to its audience with no regard for their time, money and patience".