Shriya Pilgaonkar is currently reeling in the love for her recent outing Taaza Khabar 2, and she insists that the love for it feels the same as for a big screen outing. “The success feels like the success of a commercial film in terms of how much love people have given it,” she says.
In the show, the actor is paired opposite Bhuvan Bam, who has made a transition from social media to acting. The growing influence of social media on acting jobs and influencers taking over them has become a hot topic of discussion today, with many actors coming out and speaking against this practice, including Abhishek Banerjee and Aahana S Kumra. But having worked with Bhuvan, Shriya has her own take on the issue.
Talking about the number of followers on Instagram becoming a requisite for work, she says, “It may be the case for a lot of people, but I think the kind of people that I want to work with, I don’t think they are really looking at followers. At the end of the day, I feel that if you are casting someone basis their following, it is risky even for the producers.” Calling the practice a “trend”, she says, “It does not bother me. I have heard that in a lot of casting rooms the ‘following’ is the basis of casting, but I do believe that good film makers look beyond things like followers and they’re actually looking at the talent that you’re bringing on the table. These trends keep coming and going, but you have to look beyond them.”
Although, the actor adds, “There is no right or wrong because it’s a creative field. You have the right to cast who you want to, and it is that leap of faith that you’re taking with that person. Eventually, if you want to work for longer in the film industry, you have to make sure it is your talent that speaks louder than anything else.” She even goes on to praise her co-star: “Bhuvan is a great example of someone who’s done it so well and worked so hard. He was able to create opportunities for himself which is amazing. I think he used the reach of his platform very correctly.”
This year, Shriya was a part of the acclaimed shows The Broken News 2 and Taaza Khabar 2. Having had most of her big projects on OTT, does she feel classified as an OTT actor? “Several times I realise, like in interviews, people introduce me as an OTT actor, but I feel like these labels are not very important at the end of the day. The film industry is very quick to box you. I don’t think people make that effort to think creatively about what they can do with you as a performer which is why somewhere as actors, we take the responsibility to spoon feed people with what you are capable of. As a performer today, credibility and equity both are important in showbiz,” she responds.
The actor adds that while she loves being a part of interesting stories on OTT, now she wants to focus more on doing films, and it all happened because of her special dance number in the Marathi film Navra Maza Navsacha 2. “Seeing myself on the big screen and the response I got, made me realize that I want to focus more on doing work where I get to be on the big screen. A lot of my work has been in the OTT space, but I want to do more theatricals as well,” she ends.
