Actor Dibyendu Bhattacharya says, after years in the film industry, he has finally learnt to balance work and life.

The actor, who is known for his web shows such as Poacher and Undekhi, shares, “After being in this profession for 24 years, I can say that I learned and unlearned a lot about life. It’s not easy to go with the flow as acting is not a 9-5 job. In all these years, my only point was ke khali nai baithna hai. The only thing I do at my end is not to repeat myself as an actor, ek hi jaisa dikhna is an actor’s death.”

Bhattacharya adds that there is “no such thing” as a bankable actor.

He explains, “Acting is a slippery field, and you never know what will work and what will not. Kucch bhi bankable nahin ho sakta is industry mein. Yes, your directors can trust you to play a certain role to the best of your ability and that’s it. But the twist is that as actors, some of our projects don’t get to see the light of the day. A few of my films, including Chakda Xpress, that is very close to my heart still await release.”

The actor, who began with directing plays, says that he’s still close to theatre: “Theatre se alag ho nai sakte. I have a few things on my bucket list that I will direct once again, as I used to in my theatre days in the late 1980s.”

Ask about the projects he has lined up next, and Bhattacharya, who has enough on his plate, replies, “For now, I am constantly on something or the other. I am wrapping a series with director Sriram Raghavan and my film Ek Ruka Hua Faisla is in post-production.”

His career spans three decades, and he’s an actor who has been appreciated for his performances. But Harsh Chhaya is also known to call a spade a spade. In a recent social media post, he wrote about favouritism and unprofessionalism in showbiz. When we spoke to him about this, he elaborated further on the highs and lows of showbiz and why in recent times, he hasn’t been seen much on the screen. Excerpts from the conversation:

I will credit my entire career to the kind of roles I was offered in television a decade ago. But, in the past few years, I haven’t enjoyed doing TV or films. I say films because normally one believes that after playing smaller parts, you will eventually bag bigger roles. But that has not happened. I continue to get offers for four scenes in insignificant roles. Similarly, in television, earlier there were good stories, and every character was well written, but today, there is a hero, heroine and the rest of the actors are standing in the background.

My performances in web shows Undekhi and Mukhbir got good feedback and yet, I am sitting at home. So, one wonders what went wrong. Being a character actor is not easy in showbiz. In addition, I am not happy with how the entire casting system behaves with actors who are not film stars or new actors, but somewhere in the between. If you haven’t done films with stars, then you are perceived as someone who doesn’t hold much weight. Even after working for three decades and doing a reasonable amount of good work, a casting guy calls me and says, ‘Apna phone number aur naam placard pe likh do and then send a video’. I have no problem in auditioning, I had auditioned for my part in Fashion too, but why audition for a role which will last for two days? Therefore, I have kept myself busy with voice overs and enough roles to run my kitchen in the last seven years.

Today, if you are shooting for 15 days for a web show, or you have two million followers on social media, you are considered an A category actor and enjoy a certain standard of facilities when you are on the set. But if you are shooting for four days, then your experience or seniority does not count. You are considered a C grade actor and are given accommodation in a different setup. Earlier, the entire film unit would stay together. Today, it is divided according to the number of days you shoot. If you don’t belong to a particular group or don’t know the right kind oaf people, then you are a nobody here. Only a few directors like Madhur Bhandarkar or Subhash Kapoor are professional about this. And if you refuse a role (I said no to a role with Anil Kapoor in a web show because there was not much for me to do) they tend to spread the word that you are not an easy guy to work with. I understand that no role is small in showbiz, but people should not make you feel small.

Moving in the big league, Surya Sharma of Undekhi fame has bagged a role in Bhakshak. The Red Chillies Entertainment film sees the actor play the lead opposite Bhumi Pednekar.

“Unlike Undekhi, here I play the good guy,” says Sharma, who has slipped in to play a resident of Bihar.

Since the story is set in the cow belt, the actor trained for two months to get the dialect right. “I watched a lot of YouTube channels to pick the language. It was a challenge, since coming from the north, I had already picked up the Punjabi accent, then Haryanvi. Until I reached the set, I didn’t know if I was on the right track [or not],” says the actor, who plays Pednekar’s husband in the film.

“Bhumi is a wonderful human being. [After spending time with her] during workshops, rehearsals and readings, I now count her as my friend.”

Niharika Lyra Dutt - Paatal Lok

Who was the face of 2020 — cinema and series included? No doubt, Pankaj Tripathi! Just look at the year he's had, while the world was reeling in darkness. He offered inimitable lightness of touch across platforms — as the travel agent Tony in Angrezi Medium, Ovi Mahajan Sr in the Hollywood blood-fest Extraction, reprising Kaleen Bhaiya in the desi blood-fest Mirzapur 2. Or playing its opposite, the lovable, colonel father in Gunjan Saxena; carrying forward the immense charm in Anurag Basu's Ludo, and the solid series, Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors.

Likewise, how could you take your eyes off Jaideep Ahlawat in Paatal Lok, or Jitendra Kumar in both Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan and Panchayat. Or not fall for the easy-going Pratik Gandhi as Harshad Mehta in Scam 1992, or Shreya Chaudhary in Bandish Bandits (even the male lead Ritwik Bhowmik), apart from veterans Naseeruddin Shah, Atul Kulkarni, especially the quiet Sheeba Chaddha.

Leads and even key supporting cast apart, ones who stood out in 2020 though, I think, were second/third row, pretty much unknown actors, in relatively bit parts, shining still, as they got to explore their roles further.

Which is what a series (as against a film) allows for. In that sense, this was the year of the casting director, besides content, being king. I couldn't help but notice with immense joy some fresh faces, who'd be relegated to walk-on parts, or 'junior artistes', if you may, in traditional Bollywood!

Yes, this is the glowingly warm show about the urban gram sachiv (Jitendra Kumar) and the rural prashan pati (the great Raghubir Yadav). But you take away the two adorable bumblers Vikas and Prahlad, who hang with the lead characters, and Panchayat (on Amazon Prime Video) would lose half its punch (lines/moments)! They're so good. But who are they? Exactly! Hope to see more of them.

Paatal Lok (on Amazon Prime Video) is a deathly gritty series about deceitful, greedy men and the madness they're capable of. For heaven's sake, you get hit really hard by Sanjiv Mehra (Neeraj Kabi), Hathi Ram (Jaideep Ahlawat), young Ansari (Ishwak Singh), or quite literally, Hathoda Tyagi (Abhishek Banerjee). And then the two phenomenal women show up — Sanjiv's young love-interest Sara (Niharika Lyra Dutt), and his disturbed wife Dolly (Swastika Mukherjee) — the softness of their screen presence blows you away, way more. How's that even possible? Evidently is.

What's there not to endlessly admire about the ensemble cast of the financial thriller on SonyLIV, where everyone brilliantly plays somebody who existed in real life — from BSE's Big Bull Harshad Mehta (Pratik Gandhi), business reporter Sucheta Dalal (Shreya Dhanwanthary), down to the sharp CBI officer Raghavan (Rajat Kapoor). But Harshad's earnest-looking brother, Ashwin (Hemant Kher) — man, did they get the actual guy (who's alive) to play the part, or what? That's what I thought. He's that great!

Sure the quasi-reality series Masaba Masaba has got to be about Masaba, and in equal measure her mom Neena Gupta. And then, on occasion, in this six-episode Netflix show, Masaba's friend Gia walks into the screen, performing like there's no camera before her, and I can't help but wonder: Why haven't I seen her before? Or have I!

Ghosh Babu is the sort of a portly yin to the yang of muscular Haryanvi/Punjabi drunk affluent goons hosting a wedding in Manali over yet another crime series, Undekhi (on SonyLIV). The entire cast stands out for pulling off through performances, what portions of the script lacks in its coherence, sometimes. You notice gems of a turn — from Papaji (Harsh Chhaya), daughter-in-law to be (Apeksha Singh), her videographer friend (Ayn Zoya), her fiancé (Ankur Rathee), his badass brother from another mother, Rinku (Surya Sharma)…. But Bengali DSP Ghosh (Dibyendu Bhattacharya) has all your attention — through and through!

No, I can't remember Anupria Goenka from Padmaavat, just noticing it on her IMDb. Likewise she was more or less a fleeting presence (by way of impact) in Asur (on Voot ), and you watched her in Aashram (MX Player) in the same year. Once she's familiar to the audience from Criminal Justice 1, you catch her so naturally matching wits with Pankaj Tripathi on Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors (on Disney+Hotstar) and go: What a find! This is to take away nothing from the star of the show, Kirti Kulhari, widening her range from the breezy Four More Shots Please, with what's probably the most painfully felt performance of the year. And, hell, how on-point is Jisshu Sengupta as the top lawyer.

Without an exception, everyone on Amazon Prime Video's iconic Mirzapur series is by now a star in their own right, known as well by their screen names — Guddu (Ali Fazal), Munna (Divyenndu Sharma), Bablu (Vikrant Massey), Beena Ji (Rasika Dugal), Golu (Shweta Tripathi)… Yet, Isha Talwar shows up as a young politician Madhuri Yadav in Season 2, with a quiet strut, and damn, you sit up, and take notice.

Ram Madhvani's delightfully dark, authentic adaptation of Dutch series Penoza (on Disney+Hotstar) of course gave Sushmita Sen a new lease of life, in a heavy part that she probably wasn't offered even at her peak. Sikander Kher's solid too. But I'm talking about discovering faces. And, well, how do you replicate the swag coupled with vulnerability of the cop (Vikas Kumar) investigating a drug/murder case, and the rich brat (Ankur Bhatia), navigating the law. Blown, totally.

Of course Asur on Voot Select is Arshad Warsi's comeback, in every way. And a launch-pad of sorts for young Barun Sobti. Like with all the major Indian series, the ensemble cast is killing it too. Sometimes though, I suspect, it's just about a presence on screen — the fact that they're there; not even doing or saying much, but looking every bit in the moment. That's what viscerally draws you in towards them. That was Riddhi Dogra as a mid-level CBI officer to me. Just there!