‘Being a star doesn’t make you like across the board’

Shahid Kapoor, who is two decades old in the Hindi film industry, ventured into the realm of OTT with director duo Raj and DK’s web series ‘Farzi’ this year. Later, he further solidified his digital presence with the release of ‘Bloody Daddy’, which was also released on an OTT platform. Both of Shahid’s OTT projects have garnered substantial praise from fans and have also established themselves as the most-watched projects in their respective categories. In a recent interview with a leading media house, the ‘Haider’ star opened up about his OTT success and explained why being a star is no guarantee of success across all platforms.

“As an actor, you shouldn’t just presume that just because you are a star, people will like you across the board. It doesn’t work like that! The audience has become very mature and clear about who they like. I was keen to see how people respond to me in that space.”

Explaining himself further, he said, “There are highs and lows, which I feel are very opposing. You can see that happening to various actors who are super successful, but nothing is working. It’s important to build a reputation. You really have to think about whether you will be here for 10, 15 or 30 years. You have to understand what game you are playing. Are you running a 100-metre race or a marathon? As a leading man, it’s important to understand how long you want to be here. If you are playing the big game, then one or two low years here and there shouldn’t derail you.”

The key to Shahid’s success on OTT is his set of priorities. The actor keeps ‘audiences’ respect’ above everything else: “I have always craved to have the audiences’ respect. I feel once an artist, whether it’s a filmmaker, actor or even a sportsperson, has the people’s respect, they will be able to create consistency in their graph. Things are very unpredictable.”