“I hope to make my own film this year,” says Saurabh Shukla, who has quite a few projects releasing in 2021, including films and web shows. After his last film, Chhalaang, released on OTT, Shukla says he is glad that digital platforms brought different and interesting stories to the fore.

He explains, “OTT’s identity is the style of storytelling. It had to come up with a new language as cinema had mastered it in the last 100 years while TV is driven by bulk. But on OTT, the finesse and storytelling of cinema exists along with subjects that cinema usually doesn’t talk about. That’s how new stories and new ways of storytelling have come about. This has also given a chance to other characters, besides the protagonists, to shine.”

The National Award-winning actor shot for Manohar Pandey, and was happy to be working with filmmaker Kaushik Ganguly. He is also looking forward to playing the antagonist in Sidharth Sengupta’s web show, a thriller co-starring Tisca Chopra, and is in talks for another show.

Ask about the tough phases in his career and he shares, “Yes, I have had tough times in my career and I still do, and it will be so in the future. Were my past struggles a sad thing? No, never. It depends how you look at life. People ask me often about my struggle and romanticize it. I reply, everyone goes through it, that one didn’t have enough money for rent or lunch. But, I think, how you remember those times is what matters. I am fond of those memories because I made such good friends. All of them have achieved something in life. (Actor) Manoj Bajpayee and (director) Vijay Krishna Acharya were my roommates, (director) Tigmanshu Dhulia was a good friend.”

But, the key, is to keep going. “There was struggle, insecurity. but we’d party every evening. Today, we don’t meet that often. Those parties are something I remember. Tough times are always a part of life and as you are human, you do get scared and depressed at times, but you also have to keep going and moving on,” he concludes.

Supriya Pathak Kapur, who is currently in Kolkata to shoot for Kaushik Ganguly’s Hindi directorial debut Manohar Pandey, spoke about how she misses being on stage, her definition of love, lessons of the pandemic and more. Excerpts.

To me the definition of love remains the same, but its understanding changes with age and maturity. Love, to me, means wanting to be with your loved one or do something for someone you care about selflessly. It’s not the mushy part of it at all. The emotional bond grows with time where sharing life with that person becomes important.

My daughter-in-law (Mira Kapoor) loves to read books and so does my granddaughter. She is five years old now and she loves making us read her books, too. Her favourite pastime is: Ba (she calls me Ba) and Baba (Pankaj Kapur) kahani batao... so we tell her stories and she, too, tells us stories in return. They are very involved in books and that’s a great thing about Mira. I must say she is a great mother, so our job is only to pamper our grandchildren.

It has taught me that we can do with very little in life. The other major thing that I learnt was to be with myself, to know and to understand myself. You have to learn how to be with yourself. And I felt I am not a bad person… that was a discovery (laughs!).

I miss being on stage, but Pankaj and I have put our plans on hold. I am not confident of asking people to come to the theatre in bulk. I would like to wait a little longer for things to normalise. That apart, both Pankaj and I are busy working on our respective films.

The new generation of actors are extremely hard working. Taapsee has done an amazing job in Rashmi Rocket. Youngsters today are much more focused, determined, and therefore, ready to take challenges and experiment with their characters. It’s fun to work with them. Actors earlier were mostly stuck in a genre, but youngsters are now trying to break that stereotype.

I enjoy playing all characters as I love acting. Kahi bhi acting karwa lo, main ready hoon. The more varied the genre, better it is for me as an actor.

Television was such a great medium that used to entertain us. For me, entertainment is not just laughter or sadness, but reaching out to people with every kind of emotion. I thought television would help in doing that, but it got messed up. We didn’t know how to handle it. It came down to a point where we were stuck in telling outdated stories. The audience laps up whatever you give them.