There was a time when actor Chandan Roy Sanyal felt “lost” and “discontented” with the work he was getting. That, however, changed with Aashram.

Sanyal, who is making headlines for his role as Bhopa inthe web series, is grateful to director Prakash Jha for bringing the project to him. Having played characters with shorter screen time in films, he says, “Aashram is like 15-28 films [in terms of screen time]. I have almost 400 minutes of screen time. That’s how I look at it. That’s what changed for me,” he says.

Looking back at the time when he felt disappointed at not getting “rewards” despite receiving good reviews, Sanyal says, “I just felt weak because even if I was doing a lot of projects, there was discontentment of not getting the rewards.”

But this outlook changed during the pandemic. He adds: “During the pandemic, Aashram (1 and 2) released and then I did Sanak. All three of them did so well that I realised that my own thoughts were coming in the way of my success. I got an opportunity to restart, rework on myself and see where things go.”

The OTT space has worked well for Sanyal, much like many other actors. He believes that the shift in focus from stars to content, has given the right opportunities to talented artistes and given them recognition.

Next to be seen in director Navdeep Singh’s web show, Sanyal wishes to explore other genres, especially comedy, in the future. “I’m not a villain but a comedian,” he signs off.