Chaitanya Choudhry experienced ‘creative suffocation’ after playing similar roles on television

After working on the small screen for over 15 years, actor Chaitanya Choudhry one day decided to quit television, as he says he got tired of the monotony. He describes the feeling as “creative suffocation” and says all he could think about was reconsidering what to do with his life.

“I have a lot of gratitude for TV because it made me who I am, but the kind of work that I was getting was very repetitive to do as an actor. At the start of my career, I did five shows as the positive lead, and another four shows as the antagonist following that. It made me feel suffocated, very tiring, and creatively blocked. It was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore…not this kind of work at least’. So, I decide to quit,” says the actor, who believes that it can happen in any kind of professional space when you keep doing similar kind of work for years.

Choudhry, who recently made his OTT debut with web series Hush Hush, further shares that he had no plans to leave TV or do something else. “I had no thoughts ki abhi mujhe television band kar ke OTT karna hai. All I knew was that I wanted to stop doing similar kinds of work, and I did stop everything just 7-8 months before COVID hit. Having no work affected me mentally. It was stressful in terms of finances as well, but I was sure I couldn’t go on like this. I was just taking my time to decide which path to choose. I am qualified and have done MBA, so there was a thought that I could take up a job as a creative in an MNC. Another option was to return to advertising, where I began my career. So, there were several thoughts like these. The only thing I was certain of was that I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing.”

And just as he was about to give up, Hush Hush happened. “That project helped me rediscover my passion as an actor…and why I wanted to be an actor in the first place. It was as if my soul was telling me that this is the type of content I should do. I didn’t know anything about my character or the cast other than Tanuja Chanda ma’am was making it, and I said yes right away. At the time, it was more about getting the chance to work with someone I knew would help me achieve creative fulfilment. It wasn’t until much later that I found out I was paired with Soha Ali Khan and that my character had a lot of depth,” he concludes.