Pankaj Tripathi says OTT platforms are curbing artistic freedom, recalls when he was stopped from improvising

Pankaj Tripathi says the creative space once promised by streaming platforms has tightened, revealing he has been stopped from improvising lines on set.

Pankaj Tripathi has raised a concern that has been floating around film sets for a while. He said the space that once promised freedom is now full of checks, approvals and second-guessing.

Pankaj Tripathi talked about how OTT space has shifted in just a few years.

The comments came during a conversation with Bollywood Hungama, where he spoke about how the OTT environment has shifted in just a few years.

Why Pankaj Tripathi avoided big OTT platforms for his new project

Tripathi said his team released Perfect Family, his first major production, on YouTube purposely. For them, no major platform meant no long approval route. He pointed out that every large OTT service now brings “layers of interference,” from creative heads to legal reviews to production audits.

According to him, picking YouTube was a way to tell a story without committees weighing in. “They decide who will oversee the script… then production value is questioned,” he said. For him, the open platform gave the team a clearer route to finishing the series the way they planned it.

Pankaj Tripathi is known for altering lines on the spot. He said he rarely does that anymore. The Mirzapur actor recalled a day on set when he improvised a quick line, something he said would have slipped into a scene normally. But he was stopped right away. A creative head told him the legal team had to approve it first.

He questioned why routine, harmless improvisation now requires clearance. In his view, the fear of controversy has created a system where choices are locked before an audience even has a chance to judge them. That, he said, has reshaped the workflow on many OTT-backed shoots.

Copyright checks slowing down filming, says Pankaj Tripathi

He also mentioned a smaller but telling incident. A scene required him to recite four lines of a poem. The crew insisted on holding the shot until permission was confirmed. Tripathi reached out to the poet’s family himself and learned there was no copyright issue at all. The only request from them was a picture of him holding the poet’s book.

Tripathi was last seen in Metro... In Dino. He is set to appear next in Pati Patni Aur Woh Do as well as Gulkanda Tales.