OTT Emerged As TV Shows had become regressive, film industry was not growing

Dibyendu Bhattacharya is one of the finest actors in the industry right now. He is not only a well-known face on the big and small screens, but also doing prominent work on the OTT platforms. The actor’s latest performance in Main Monica, streaming on Amazon Prime Video, is also the talk of the town. He talks about how OTT as a medium has revolutionized our viewing habits and how much the audiences are hooked on it.

Dibyendu plays the role of Mangu Shetty aka Mangu Anna, who runs a dance bar. As most of us know, dance bars were once a big industry. A lot of women worked there to run their households.

Talking about the web series Dibyendu says,'' The plus point of the show is that the writers Ranjeet Chitrakar, Amber Wasi, and Paromita Ganguly are the producers themselves. This way the production and creative calls are taken in harmony. My association with them goes a long way back since 2018 when they were at the stage of conceptualizing the project and narrating the character of Mangu Anna to me. I met them through my friend Amrita, who was my neighbour” he adds.

He feels that OTT emerged as an alternative entertainment and content-driven platform as television had become regressive and the film industry was not growing. The OTT boom has made audiences realize that good content doesn’t need stars. In fact, content is the star of the show. This does not mean that OTT cannot produce irrelevant content. There is always a saturation point in every industry. We always try to replicate a hit formula and end up creating similar content over and over again. Consequently, the availability of content is so high that the audiences don't have the time to watch everything which results in a lucky draw kind of situation. ” he says.

When asked about his process of preparation for a character, he states that he likes to stay updated and connected with life. " Life inspires me to act, it's the source of my acting and it also inspires me to play various characters. I like to involve myself completely with the daily routine of life, be it cooking a meal for my family, taking my daughter for a football match, chit-chatting with my sabzi wala and things like that. I feel I learn as an actor from all these experiences."

Dibyendu wants to do more meaningful work on OTT. He has quite a few projects lined up and the actor is very excited about them.

As an actor, everyone has a dream role. Ask Dibyendu about his dream role and he answers, “There is nothing as such.I want to do every good role offered to me. There are no specific characters in mind. I am an artist and I don't like getting stereotyped. If you play a cop, they will offer you the same character every time. I  try to portray each character differently. As an artist, I want to do different characters, I don't want to look the same. Rather I want to reinvent myself every time with every character I play. I want to play the main lead, be it, the protagonist or  the antagonist, but it should be a meaty role.”