Aftab Shivdasani recently made his digital debut with the ZEE5 series, Poison 2. In a recent statement, he said that OTT provides equal opportunities to everyone.
There have been talks about the absence of a level playing field in Bollywood, and the actor is of the view that as far as OTT is concerned, the star culture doesn’t fit into the medium.
“The whole star system is not applicable to the webspace. Here, there is nothing like who is a bigger or a smaller star, it’s all about the content you choose. For instance, if you look at Game of Thrones, besides Shaun Bean no one else was much known. When the show became big, the leading and supporting characters also became household names.”
Shivdasani also stressed on how the narrative and the character one plays, along with its impact on the former, is more important in production for the web. He further said that with the kind of content that the web is churning out, there are abundant opportunities and scope for creativity as well.
“I think OTT gives you much more leeway and freedom to push boundaries, and motivates you to explore something new.”
Shivdasani, who portrayed Aditya Singh Rathore in Poison 2, revealed that he loved the challenge of playing a character with grey shades.
“For me, playing a grey character gives me a big high, it is a challenge and I love it. That is the reason I said yes instantly to Poison 2 because that is exactly what I wanted to do.”
This chance, which allowed him to portray his dark side through a character, is the one he believes will help him to shed the chocolate boy image that has followed him since he started his career.
But, Shivdasani also shared how necessary it was to choose the right kind of content on OTT.
“I did get many offers but again, they were mostly around the romantic and comedy space, so I declined them. I didn’t want to do stuff that I have already been doing. I felt they were sort of an extension of what I was doing in films. So, I made it a point to choose my first project cautiously, as I didn’t want to repeat myself.”
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