Purab Kohli on web censorship: By censoring content, you are treating adults like children

Actor Purab Kohli recognises digital medium as the forefront of entertainment, and feels nothing should be censored for adults and that everyone has the freedom to choose what they want to watch.

He was among the first crop of Indian actors to jump on to the OTT bandwagon, way back when those platforms had not even entered the Indian market. And even today, Purab Kohli continues to work in such content, and his next, Out of Love’s second season, will be released soon.

Actor Purab Kohli jumped on to the OTT bandwagon way back.

As the OTT craze picks up among actors and audiences alike, he recalls, “I did a show for a major streaming platform in USA in 2014. It was so early in the day that I didn’t even see it when it released since we didn’t quite understand what internet distribution was in India back then! We did not even have the internet speeds to stream YouTube videos, let alone having such a buffet of platforms to choose from.”

The 42-year-old, who starred in the show Sense8, tells us that the popularity of this medium hit him later when people abroad recognised him.

“Six months later I was in a restaurant in London and people were asking me for photos, I imagined them to be Bollywood fans until someone asked if I was Rajan Rasal from Sense8. Today these platforms are the forefront of entertainment and some of them are also pushing the envelope on creativity,” says Kohli, who will be seen next in the Hindi film Blind, alongside Sonam K Ahuja.

The fear of censorship looms large over web content in India today, and self governance seems to have been adopted by many platforms. Ask him his take on it, and Kohli says adults are wise enough to make their own decisions.

“Nothing should be censored from adults. If a person is legally considered to be an adult after a certain age, she or he should be allowed to choose what they want to watch, experience or feel. No one is forcing them to watch the content they have a choice to do so. By censoring content your treating adults like children,” concludes Kohli.