OTT platforms gave enormous opportunities to actors to experiment with good content and do performance-driven characters. However, with filmmakers focussing more on signing actors with a ‘star value’, Dibyendu Bhattarcharya feels that things are back to square one.
“Jis cheez se bach kar OTT bana tha, phir se wahi ho raha hai. Pehle jo chalta tha ki uske bhai-bhateeje ko lekar aao, we will make a film…that’s what’s happening on OTT now. It’s sad but what can we do?,” asks the actor who recently wrapped up the shoot of web show Rocket Boys 2.
He highlights that there’s no line between OTT and film industry, and it has all become a common space. “There is just one industry now, cinema is not left anymore. So where will those people go? They also need to work and pay their bills and will move to OTT for the same,” he says and expresses worry saying, “And character artistes, who were getting roles because of OTT, will be sidelined once again. If actors who have not been able to prove themselves in so many years will take away the opportunities from the hands of good actors, who have shown their potential …toh kya hi hoga!”
Bhattacharya is aware that it’s not something that can be stopped because “OTT is nobody’s territory. It’s a space for every kind of artiste. So we have to coexist”.
Calling the “so-called A-listers” liabilities for the industry, the Jamtara actor says he doesn’t like how filmmakers treat these “liabilities as assets”, and doing that yet again on OTT.
“Jin liabilities ko aap assets samajhte rahe, unhi ko aap wapas lekar aa rahe ho. Yahi toh karte hain hum. But what I don’t understand is when these people act all surprised about seeing us on screen (OTT) and they question, ‘Aapko toh bahut time se dekha nahi, aap kahan the? We were always here, but those people were busy turning liabilities into assets…making similar kinds of pictures with similar stars. Their way of working is ‘is actor ko lekar picture banao to chalega’. They never valued the real artistes,” he rues.
That being said, the actor is happy that people have finally become aware and are rejecting the projects they don’t like.
“The audience today is very vocal about what they want. They clearly say that they do not want to watch anyone who has nothing extraordinary to offer. They want to watch good performances, good actors and good work. That’s why, there have been so many projects that were created with so much hype around them but did not work,” he opines.
As for theatres still struggling to revive, Bhattacharya says, “Theatres will work only in two cases — either release the magnum opus films that people can watch for the cinematic experience or films made on small budget with actors like us. People will like it for the art. Mediocracy won’t work.”