It’s not easy to shed the image you’ve built over years, but Riteish Deshmukh is steadily doing it. The actor, who shines in comedies, has chosen a hard-hitting thriller, Pill, for his web series debut. Did his desire to steer away from comedies draw him to the JioCinema offering? Not at all. What appealed to him was how director Raj Kumar Gupta trained his lens on the healthcare industry. “People in India see medicine and mandir ka prasad in the same light. We’ve all read about [unethical practices in the pharmaceutical industry], and most companies will pay people to keep it hidden. I’m glad that Raj and Ronnie Screwvala [producer] thought it is important to reflect on this issue,” he says.

Pill is the actor’s maiden web series