Chapter 8
The storm broke at exactly 10:00 AM on a Tuesday.
Jai was sitting in the balcony of his Delhi home, the sound of a distant pressure cooker and the chirping of sparrows providing a deceptive sense of normalcy. On the table lay his phone, vibrating incessantly. The official teaser of 'Sultan of the Streets' had been live for exactly sixty minutes.
Jai didn't need to open the app to know what was happening. He could feel the "Industry Ripple" through the indigo mark on his wrist. He picked up the phone and tapped into the metadata of the YouTube comments section.
[ TEASER LIVE FEEDBACK ]
[ General Sentiment: Mixed (Confused) ]
[ Viral Topic 1: "Why does the editing look like a 1994 Bhojpuri film?" ]
[ Viral Topic 2: "Who is the actor at 1:00? His eyes are terrifying." ]
[ Search Spike: 'Jai Vardhan Actor' – Trending #4 in India. ]
"Bhai, have you seen the memes?" Meera burst into the balcony, holding her tablet out like a weapon.
Jai looked at the screen. A popular meme page had already posted a side-by-side comparison. On the left was Aryan, glowing in an orange filter with the caption: *'My eyes in the 90s.'* On the right was the raw, rainy shot of Jai with the caption: *'My soul in 2021.'* The internet was doing exactly what Jai had predicted. They were tearing the studio's outdated marketing to shreds, but they were treating Jai's twenty-second appearance as a "Glitch in the Matrix"—a moment of pure, unadulterated cinema accidentally trapped in a masala flick.
"The comments are brutal, Bhai," Meera said, her voice a mix of concern and excitement. "People are saying Aryan looks like he's acting in a shampoo commercial, but you... they're asking if you're a real person or CGI. One guy wrote: 'This guy didn't act; he just inhaled the rain'."
Jai leaned back, his eyes catching a flicker of numbers above the tablet.
[ AUDIENCE PERCEPTION ]
[ Curiosity Factor: 98% ]
[ Aryan's 'Star Power' Damage: Moderate ]
[ Dark Truth: A rival studio has already contacted Sunil (The Director) to ask if Jai is signed to an exclusive contract. ]
"What does Papa think?" Jai asked, his voice steady.
"He hasn't seen it," Meera whispered. "He's in the study. You know him... he hates 'fillum' talk. But I think you should show him. This isn't just a dance-and-song role, Jai. You look... you look like the poems he reads."
Jai stood up, the weight of the moment pressing down on him. He walked toward the study. The room was cool, smelling of old paper and the jasmine incense his father favored. Professor Ishwar was bent over a manuscript, his spectacles slipping down the bridge of his nose.
"Papa?"
Ishwar looked up, his expression neutral. "The noise from the balcony was quite loud. I assume your 'teaser' has arrived?"
Jai didn't explain. He simply placed the phone on the desk and hit play.
He watched his father's face. He didn't use the Critic's Eye—he didn't want to see percentages. He wanted to see a father's heart. Ishwar watched the first sixty seconds with a slight, disappointed frown. The loud trumpets and the yellow filters clearly grated on his academic sensibilities.
But then, the music died. The rain started.
Ishwar's hand, which had been tapping the desk, stopped. He leaned forward. His eyes followed Jai's every movement on the small screen. When Jai spoke his line—*"The street is a graveyard. Pick your spot"*—the Professor's breath hitched.
The video ended. Silence reclaimed the room.
"It's a bad film," Ishwar said finally, his voice raspy. "The colors are gaudy. The boy—the lead—has no weight in his soul. He speaks as if he is reading a grocery list."
Jai felt a pang of disappointment, but then his father looked up.
"But those last twenty seconds..." Ishwar paused, his eyes softening. "For those twenty seconds, Jai, you weren't my son. You weren't an actor. You were a 'Stain' that refused to be washed away. You brought the gravity of a Ghalib couplet to a comic book. Be careful."
"Careful of what, Papa?"
"The industry doesn't like people who break the frame," Ishwar said, returning to his books. "They want puppets. You are a puppeteer. They will try to cut your strings before the first show."
[ SYSTEM ALERT: DARK TRUTH MANIFESTING ]
[ TARGET: APEX FILMS HQ ]
[ ACTION: The Producers have ordered the Editor to 'De-Saturate' Jai's scenes to make him look less impactful compared to Aryan. ]
Jai's jaw tightened. His father was right. The metadata was already showing him the counter-attack. Aryan's ego couldn't handle the "20-second takeover."
Jai walked out of the study and found Meera waiting. "Bhai? You look angry."
"I'm not angry, Meera. I'm just calculating," Jai said, his Critic's Eye now fully open, glowing with a cold, indigo light.
He took his phone and dialed a number he had saved under 'Do Not Call'. It was Malhotra, the Executive Producer he had blackmailed on set.
The phone rang three times before Malhotra picked up. His voice was frantic. "Jai? Have you seen the trends? Aryan's father is on the other line! He's demanding we re-cut the teaser. He wants your close-up removed!"
"Mr. Malhotra," Jai said, his voice like ice. "Listen to me very carefully. If you touch a single frame of my edit, I won't just release the budget audit. I'll release the original, unedited raw footage of Aryan's drug-fueled breakdown on set. The internet loves a 'Hero' until they see him shivering behind a vanity van."
Malhotra gasped. "You wouldn't... that would kill the movie!"
"The movie is already a ghost, Malhotra. I'm just deciding whether it becomes a legend or a joke. Keep the edit. In fact, tell the Editor to release a 'Character Teaser' for Arjun tomorrow. Use the rain scene. If you don't... the audit goes to the tax department by sunset."
[ MISSION UPDATED: THE CHARACTER TEASER ]
[ SUCCESS PROBABILITY: 74% ]
[ DARK TRUTH: Aryan is currently planning to skip the promotions to 'sabotage' the film's reach. ]
Jai hung up. He looked at Meera, who was watching him with wide, slightly fearful eyes.
"Slice of life is over, Meera," Jai said, ruffling her hair one last time. "The Sultan wants his streets back. But he's forgotten one thing."
"What's that?"
"I've already lived the ending," Jai whispered. "And in the end, the Sultan always falls."
Jai walked back to his room and sat in the dark. He wasn't Jai the son or Jai the brother anymore. He was the Ghost of 2021, and he was about to teach the 90s-era "Kings" that in the age of the internet, you can't hide the truth behind a yellow filter.
[ CURRENT VIRAL REACH: 5 MILLION VIEWS ]
[ COMMENT OF THE DAY: "Who is Jai Vardhan? ]