Content creator and actor Ashish Chanchlani has stepped into the sci-fi space with his YouTube series Ekaki, which he has written, directed, produced and acted in. The ambitious project blends horror, comedy and extraterrestrial elements, something rarely explored in Indian digital content.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Ashish revealed that the idea for the series came from his long-standing fascination with aliens and the fear of the unknown. He addressed comparisons between the finale episode’s ending with Stranger Things and talked about being offered money from OTT platforms.
How Ekaki came into existence
Ashish revealed that he always wanted to bring aliens to India, but in a way nobody has done before. “The fear of the unknown is a very good topic, not really explored well. Whenever we find something uncanny or mysterious, we always say it’s a ghost, but we never question the reality of it,” he said.
He recalled that the concept struck him during a casual conversation with friends. “One day, I was with my friends, and I said, ‘You say there are ghosts here, but it can even be aliens.’ That’s how the idea came that first we will make an environment to make people believe that there’s a ghost here, but in the end we will reveal it was an alien all along.”
According to Ashish, the screenplay took a long time to develop because the concept had to remain simple despite being science fiction. “So it took us a lot of time to write the screenplay because it was very tricky. And my first and foremost rule of writing this genre was that we will not complicate it. Sci-fi is a topic which is rarely touched on in India. But we will embrace it fully, but also make sure it’s not just about shock value.”
The story centres around a dangerous alien whose mission to extract his minerals threatens Earth. Ashish said he intentionally reversed the familiar alien tropes seen in Koi… Mil Gaya. “We have seen good aliens a lot in India. I wanted to do everything opposite to what happened in Koi Mil Gaya. In the film, Jaadu needed the sun; in our story, we made sure he hates the sun. In the film, Jaadu is cute, but in our story, we wanted it to look dangerous. So it took us three years to make.”
Ashish Chanchlani admits facing loss
For the creator, the project also represented a turning point in his career. Known largely for relatable comedy sketches about everyday situations, he felt the need to experiment. When asked if he had been asked not to take such a huge risk by his parents and well-wishers, Ashish agreed that he had been hearing this for a long time. “And I was like, ‘Now I have turned 30, if I don’t take risk now, then when will I take risk?’ Till when will I keep making content about Holi, Diwali and tuition classes?” he said.
He added that audiences eventually grow tired of repetitive content and start bashing you if you give them the same content. While the show has gained significant traction online, Ashish admitted that it has not been financially rewarding so far. “If we see monetarily, I am in a huge loss, but emotionally and mentally, I am in a lot of profit today. Paise kama lenge aage chalke 100% (we’ll earn money in the future 100%),” he said.
Why Ashish Chanchlani rejected OTT’s offer for Ekaki
He also revealed that several OTT platforms were initially unable to understand the format of the show, which blends YouTube-style sketch comedy with long-form storytelling. “There were a lot of OTTs that did not understand what I was trying to do. This genre, which I have made, is a sketch comedy only; it has that YouTube feel but mixed with storytelling. It’s a new thing we were trying to do, and they were not able to understand it,” he explained.
Interestingly, Ashish shared that he even received a lucrative offer shortly before the show’s release, but decided against it. “Yes, we were offered a good amount of money. Just 10 days before the release, a very good platform offered me money, and I could have easily cashed out. But I wouldn’t have been happy,” he said, adding that releasing the series on YouTube allowed it to reach a much wider audience.
“The amount of viewership that Ekaki has generated on YouTube is crazy. It’s 10X more than it would have been on any other platform. Every chapter became an event, and people kept talking about it for months,” he said, calling the show a gift to his loyal audience.
Ashish Chanchlani on writing Stranger Things-like finale
Ashish also addressed comparisons between a scene in Ekaki and the finale of Stranger Things. In the series, his character uses telekinesis to lift the alien, a moment some viewers felt resembled a scene from the popular show. However, he insists the similarity is purely coincidental. “Stranger Things finale came on January 1, 2026, and we had shot Ekaki in 2024. The scene where I use telekinesis and lift the alien up is exactly similar, but we wrote that scene three years back. I’m actually happy with the fact that we could match the ideas of the Stranger Things team,” he added.
For Ashish, the series also pays homage to Rakesh Roshan’s Koi… Mil Gaya, which he believes was a rare moment of bold experimentation in Hindi cinema. “I feel no one after Rakesh sir and Rajkumar Hirani sir really dared to take up this topic of aliens. It’s crazy because Bollywood used to experiment much more earlier. In 2003, they made an alien and spaceship film.”
Looking ahead, Ashish revealed that he has several ideas for expanding the world of Ekaki. “I would love to start a universe out of it. I even have some wild ideas, and I’m thinking of a spin-off,” he said. However, he believes creating a cinematic universe should always come after a strong story. “Universe is a very tricky thing to do. It shouldn’t be like a gimmick. Today, people think about making a universe first, without even deciding the story. It should be just the opposite.”