Actor Neil Bhoopalam was last seen in the web series Masaba Masaba in 2020. While he has his hands full with four projects, staying away from the screen for nearly two years bothered him. “More than the fact that I didn’t have a release, what bothered me was that I couldn’t act or perform, not on stage or in front of the camera. That’s a real test of your patience. I believe I was born to be an actor. And when you don’t get to do what you were born to do, you become restless,” he says.

Out of sight, out of mind is a popular adage in showbiz. Quiz him if he was worried about the same, and Bhoopalam says, “The old saying, ‘Jo dikhta hai, woh bikta hai’ holds true to a great extent. But with today’s extensive library on each streaming platform, your older work can be accessed. And this helps accumulate more audiences as time goes by.”

One of the upcoming projects that the NH10 (2015) actor has in the pipeline is the film Lost, which comes two years after his last film, Shakuntala Devi (2020). Having worked on a bunch of web series in the recent past, he shares that he would like to strike a balance between both formats. But he adds, “Films are a fascinating medium. It’s like a visual symphony. There is a reason why it’s called the ‘magic of cinema’.” 

On a parting note, Bhoopalam says he utilized the Coronavirus pandemic by enrolling in an acting class. “It kept me on my toes and helped me practice, and if you don’t use it (your craft), you lose it!” he ends.