The newest addition to the rising listing of mainstream actors foraying into the OTT house, Prosenjit Chatterjee made his internet debut with Jubilee, and adopted it Hansal Mehta’s investigative drama, Scoop. Calling it the “proper time” to discover the digital house, the actor feels the medium has moved on from the “intercourse and violence” part — that it closely relied on initially — and is now embracing healthful tales.
In Jubilee, the actor, primarily identified for his work in Bengali cinema, essayed the function of a fictional yesteryear movie tycoon, Srikant Roy — a ruthless, bold but weak film maker. In the meantime, in Scoop, he portrays the character primarily based on late journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, whose homicide in 2011 shook your entire media fraternity. Right here, the actor clarifies that he’s not “breaking any picture via this medium. OTT enables you to check out a variety of attention-grabbing issues. Folks noticed me do totally different roles they usually preferred each”.
In a candid chat, Chatterjee opens up about his journey thus far and comparisons with different mediums that’s inevitable.
No, it wasn’t. Whereas Jubilee was a really deliberate factor, I didn’t know Scoop can be out so quickly. Jubilee was pushed virtually by a yr due to the pandemic. Such choices are usually not in my palms. Additionally, I did Scoop just for Hansal, who’s an expensive pal.
We are able to’t sit and plan such issues. Like, we didn’t know OTT platforms can be so huge in India, or Jubilee would develop into this huge — critically, technically, and commercially. I began my profession via Bengali movies, and have seen the trade change within the final 40 years. I’m all the time eager on working with new administrators. As an actor, it permits me scope to reinvent. And each these OTT reveals did that.
With regards to Jubilee, was it your love for cinema which pushed you to dive into the house?
Sure, I’m a cinema buff. I’ve studied cinema as I’m from the trade. I understood the place my character is coming from and all his actions. There isn’t any optimistic, no destructive, no villains, everyone has their very own journey. That’s what was the very best factor concerning the sequence. They have been actual.
Once we say India produces the most important variety of movies and reveals, we aren’t simply speaking about Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, or Marathi. However collective tasks. With OTT platforms coming in, the very best factor all of us can say is that we’re making Indian content material. I is likely to be sitting in Mumbai or Punjab, and making content material that will likely be watched throughout the nation. We’re pan India within the true sense due to the medium. By way of the storytelling, too, there are some tales which administrators can’t do [justice to] in cinemas, however digital is a superb platform to inform these tales. To not overlook documentation, which isn’t there’s case of theatrical releases. For example, Jubilee, even after 20 years, if someone desires to observe the present, they will watch it.
Not censorship, however there needs to be a method just like tv. The small display screen has some guidelines and rules. They need to be for the OTT world, too. Additionally, the accountability lies with the makers concerning the content material they put out. Nonetheless, I really feel that part has gone. Initially, it was [all] about intercourse and violence, which isn’t the case any extra, at the very least not as a lot because it was earlier. That’s the explanation why folks at the moment are watching [shows such as] Rocket Boys, Jubilee or Rip-off 1992. Audiences have additionally began watching content material from a distinct perspective, which is nice.
OTT reaches out to a wider viewers base. The imaginative and prescient is identical as tv, although it’ll take some extra time to get there.