With outings such as Bandish Bandits and Khakee: The Bengal Chapter to his credit, Ritwik Bhowmik has emerged as a popular face in the OTT space. The actor admits that he has been able to find a foothold despite not meeting the requirements for the ‘quintessential’ hero. And the credit for that, he says, “goes to the makers of my projects.”

Ritwik elaborates, “They placed their trust in me, irrespective of my social media following or the fact that I don’t look like the quintessential leading man. So far, I have been navigating well because I have been able to meet makers who only care about whether I fit the part or not.”

However, with popularity on social media almost becoming a pre-requisite for bagging projects, especially among the younger generation of actors, does he feel any pressure to succumb to norms? “I am an anomaly. I am not very active on Instagram, but fortunately, quite active as an actor. That just shows it’s not relevant everywhere,” he responds.

Though he has the image of the ‘guy next door’, Khakee allowed him to break the mould by playing a gangster. The 32-year-old shares, “It’s human nature to be fascinated by whatever we don’t understand. Whenever the audience perceives me in a certain way after a project, I break that image in the next project. I have been blessed to be able to do that. I feel, jis din main samajh mein aa gaya [logon ko], uss din main ek button ban jaunga.”

Explaining his analogy, Ritwik shares, “Every actor in the industry is a button on the remote of a television. After a certain point, every actor gets associated with a signature genre — for example, (Shah Rukh) Khan sahab for romance and Akshay (Kumar) sir for comedy. In that sense, all of us become a button after a certain point.”

He adds, “Having said that, I am looking forward to becoming a button, as that is stardom. When you become a star, you represent a narrative and become an image. I’ll be glad to be an image, but until that happens, I want to be an actor.”