OTT platforms are to be thanked for breaking the stereotype that only young actors can play lead role in a film/show with middle aged ones mostly getting cast in supporting roles. These streaming services not only changed the picture for us, but also gave the viewers the opportunity to realise what we had been missing till now.
These OTT platforms have brought forward stories where the most interesting and important characters are those in their 30s or 40s, contrary to the set pattern in bollywood having such roles fixed for those in their 20s. Not that we don’t have younger people on OTT doing good, but if one observes closely they have mostly been cast in similar kinds of genres.
Consider roles like those played by Pankaj Tripathi in ‘Sacred Games’ (Netflix), ‘Mirzapur’ (Amazon Prime Video), ‘Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl’ (Netflix), ‘Ludo’ (Netflix), ‘Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors’ (Disney+Hotstar) and upcoming ‘Kaagaz’ (Zee5). One can easily notice a certain depth and layer in each of his role and it goes beyond saying that he does the job wonderfully every time.
Other such actors who have equally garnered praise recently include Jaideep Ahlawat, Pratik Gandhi, Abhishek Bachchan, Sushmita Sen, Arshad Warsi, Neeraj Kabi, Swastika Mukherjee and many more. The kind of versatile roles these amazing actors have got to play is something that every actor aspires to play in their career.
While it is a great thing to happen, the best would be a scenario where actors of all age group get to play all kinds of role and not get stacked in particular silos. The fact that younger generation is busy thinking out of the box sometimes makes them miss out on certain simpler looking characters that at times display a greater emotional depth and require a certain level of maturity to understand it.
Efforts need to be taken by filmmakers, OTT platforms and the actors to bridge this creative gap and prevent characters from getting boxed as per age groups. Because only when actors get to realise their full potential is when an ordinary stories become extraordinary.