Actor Urvashi Dholakia may be back on TV after a hiatus, but she doesn’t hide her aversion for the term ‘comeback’. She explains, “I didn’t go anywhere. I choose to work in the right projects, do roles that work for me.”

While her peers have been taking the digital route, the actor laments the lack of offers. For her, the comparison between OTT and television content is “wrong”. She remarks that both the mediums cater to different kinds of viewers. “Sure, there is a mix, too, but a majority of people watch either this or that. Like my 80-year-old mother loves TV dramas, but would cringe at the abuses in OTT shows. TV caters to a family audience, which is a huge market,” says Dholakia.

Ask her about veering towards web shows and she points out, “I would love to do OTT shows, but I have to be offered one. There is a big barrier when it comes to casting actors from TV for web projects. Most people taking the call of casting actors for OTT have a TV background, but they are hesitant to cast actors from TV, saying we are too exposed.”

The actor hopes that the “sad situation” changes soon. “It is an awful discrimination. Actors who do TV shows are always categorised as ‘TV actors’. The label of a TV actor hurts. People should stop it. Why can’t we just be called actors? Why am I called ‘TV actor Urvashi Dholakia’, why not just ‘actor Urvashi Dholakia’? I have done films as a kid, and I also did theatre. But no one says, ‘Child actor-turned-ad actor-turned-theatre actor-turned serial actor! Then why say TV actor? All of us are actors performing on different mediums,” she laments.

Proud of her body of work, Dholakia, 42, bats for the small screen, as she feels “TV is big and thriving” and it has opened its doors for artistes from all mediums. “People who haven’t done well in films are doing well on TV. Eventually, everyone needs TV at the end of the day, as promotion of every kind of content happens on TV,” she ends.