Shakti Arora: TV actors are conditioned to perform under pressure, which is not true for artistes on other platforms

After quitting the long-running show Kundali Bhagya, actor Shakti Arora has decided to venture into the OTT space and explore his untapped potential. But many artistes before him have talked about the discriminatory behaviour that TV actors often deal with when they decide to make a shift towards another platform.

Asked if Arora has noticed a similar pattern, he says, “Koi director aapko ye muh par nahin bolta hai ki aapne TV me kaam kara hai toh hum aapko kaam nahi denge. Par yeh baatein hoti hain casting agents mein. Film or ad directors do not sit and watch television. They do not know who is from which platform. All they care about is performance.”

Though the actor admits he fails to understand the reason behind such “unfair treatment” by casting agents, he maintains that TV actors are better performers than most other artistes across platforms.

“They (TV actors) are conditioned to perform under pressure. We get the scripts on the same day and sometimes, it’s changed just 15 minutes before the shoot. Yet we manage to prepare for the scene and perform it to the best of our ability. We are very spontaneous artistes and that’s our strength. So even if we get a film script or that of an OTT project, we can memorize a 2 page dialogue within no time and deliver,” he shares, adding, “Unlike us, actors on other platforms get bound scripts as well as the time to rehearse a hundred times. There are many big actors who even use teleprompters to read dialogues. Hence, I do not understand why TV actors are looked down upon even then.”

Willing to work across platforms, Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi actor points out how there is an order of preference when it comes to different platforms.

“An actor is open for all the mediums — films, OTT, Televsion, advertisements. No actor will tell you ki mujhe sirf TV karna hai ya mujhe films mil rahi hai par me bas OTT karna chaahta hun. But there is an order of preference. Any artiste would first choose films, then comes OTT followed by ads and TV and I would also go in that particular order if offered good projects,” says Arora who is already on the hunt for good opportunities and has been auditioning for such roles since past one month.