“I hope to make my own film this year,” says Saurabh Shukla, who has quite a few projects releasing in 2021, including films and web shows. After his last film, Chhalaang, released on OTT, Shukla says he is glad that digital platforms brought different and interesting stories to the fore.

He explains, “OTT’s identity is the style of storytelling. It had to come up with a new language as cinema had mastered it in the last 100 years while TV is driven by bulk. But on OTT, the finesse and storytelling of cinema exists along with subjects that cinema usually doesn’t talk about. That’s how new stories and new ways of storytelling have come about. This has also given a chance to other characters, besides the protagonists, to shine.”

The National Award-winning actor shot for Manohar Pandey, and was happy to be working with filmmaker Kaushik Ganguly. He is also looking forward to playing the antagonist in Sidharth Sengupta’s web show, a thriller co-starring Tisca Chopra, and is in talks for another show.

Ask about the tough phases in his career and he shares, “Yes, I have had tough times in my career and I still do, and it will be so in the future. Were my past struggles a sad thing? No, never. It depends how you look at life. People ask me often about my struggle and romanticize it. I reply, everyone goes through it, that one didn’t have enough money for rent or lunch. But, I think, how you remember those times is what matters. I am fond of those memories because I made such good friends. All of them have achieved something in life. (Actor) Manoj Bajpayee and (director) Vijay Krishna Acharya were my roommates, (director) Tigmanshu Dhulia was a good friend.”

But, the key, is to keep going. “There was struggle, insecurity. but we’d party every evening. Today, we don’t meet that often. Those parties are something I remember. Tough times are always a part of life and as you are human, you do get scared and depressed at times, but you also have to keep going and moving on,” he concludes.