While social media is imperative for most celebs, actor Shweta Basu Prasad doesn’t subscribe to the idea of people being cast in projects on the basis of their social media following. “Earlier, people would go door to door with their portfolios. Now that has become digital. People check your social media profile and see how you look. But to do something you don’t believe in, just for numbers (referring to inorganically boosting one’s social media profile to get work), isn’t something I can do,” says Prasad, whose first outing as a director, Retake, premiered at the New York Indian Film Festival recently.

The actor claims a PR agency recently approached her and commented on how her Instagram profile was low-key: “A woman from an agency called me and said, ‘Your profile is not like that of an actor’. I said, ‘Okay, enlighten me’. She told me I should be putting out more reels on trending songs and posting more Insta Stories. She also said that my profile was only about books, my favourite films and actors.”

The 32-year-old believes that “mediocrity is being celebrated” in the industry. She adds, “Such agencies go to new actors and tell them to do this and that. They think this would get them work, but I think it’s a big hoax.”