Rakul Preet Singh: Web has raised the standards for content, casting and presentation

Joining the growing list of celebs singing praises for the web, Rakul Preet Singh says the OTT boom that was forthcoming in the next four-five years happened in 2020 itself due to the pandemic.

“Indian audience got exposed to a lot of regional and international content. That not just improved their taste but also pushed us to deliver better content in films, write better scripts, influenced how we approach a story. With the exploration of the web there is so much more content that’s being made. This has led to more opportunities for people to step into this industry so I think that’s the brightest side,” she says.

Regarding the kind of content OTTs are churning out, the actor shares that another positive aspect of the web is the opportunity to experiment more.

“There’s so much liberty that one can take in terms of storytelling, casting, presentation and all. It has raised the standards so high that people are now going to compare everything with everything they’ve seen during this time. So I think it’s a great time for the entertainment industry,” adds Singh, highlighting that the scope for writing great characters is better on the web.

Talking about characterisation, there has been a constant discussion around how female-fronted stories needs to be made in abundance in films.

Reacting to it, the 30-year-old says, “For me, it’s about the existence of important roles for women. And I think such stories and characters are being created now. They were their earlier too and actors like [late] Meena Kumari ji, [late] Nargis ji and even Tabu, Kajol, Karisma Kapoor have done and are still doing such roles. Even see the films Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu and many others are doing. At the same time we also have to understand that there are a variety of films that are being made that focuses on different stories. But whatever it is, the story will always remain the hero,” explains the actor, who has eight films releasing this year including two Tamil and Telugu films and Mayday, Thank God, Attack and an untitled project in Bollywood.

While all these films are expected to hit theatres, there have been many films since 2020 that took the OTT route.

“At the end the content needs to reach the audience. Of course we all love theatre and want it to be fully functional. I myself went to a theatre to watch Tenet. We need to start pushing that section of livelihood back again. That is an entirely different scheme of things... But we also want our projects to release, to offer the audience something new. So, some had to opt for a direct-to-OTT release. We’ve to co-exist and not disregard or push back anything to make something else flourish. We’ve to work hand-in-hand hoping that normalcy comes back soon,” she concludes.

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Author tweets @Shreya_MJ