Regional actors who’ve found all-India limelight in OTT space

OTT platforms have emerged as ready spaces for several regional actors to grab pan-India limelight. The likes of Pratik Gandhi, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Jisshu Sengupta, Samantha Akkineni, Paoli Dam and Swastika Mukherjee have been consistently doing good work in their respective regional turfs, and occasionally courting the Hindi dazzle. These actors now represent an emerging lot that have looked at wider reach beyond their regional realms, all thanks to the exposure through digital platforms.

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Born and brought up in Surat, Pratik predominantly worked in Gujarati theatre and cinema for year. He appeared in Hindi films like “Mitron” and “Loveyatri”. However, it was in 2020 that he rose to prominence with his performance in Hansal Mehta’s drama web-series “Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story”. Pratik’s portrayal of Harshad Mehta was bang on, and it made him a household name overnight. The show became top Indian web-series of 2020. He will reunite with director Hansal Mehta for upcoming spy thriller series titled 'For Your Eyes Only'.

Samantha Akkineni is a star of South Indian films. She made her debut in the Hindi digital space in the second season of “The Family Man” starring Manoj Bajpayee and earned accolades. She had earlier appeared the digitally-released Tamil anthology “Super Deluxe”, and will hope to reach out to pan-Indian audiences with more such prominent roles in the OTT space. Fans have been waiting for Samantha’s performance in the much-awaited ‘Citadel’.

Jisshu is an established name in Bangla cinema but he has occasionally done Hindi films, too. He was seen in “Barfi!”, “Mardaani”, “Piku”, “Manikarnika”, “Antim” to name a few. However, Jisshu has come of age in the attention span of Bollywood buffs with his well-crafted performances in “Shakuntala Devi” and “Durgamati”. He has also become a well-known face down South as well starring in films like “Aswathama”, “Bheeshma”, “Acharya”, “Sita Raman” to name a few.OTT shows like “Criminal Justice”, “Skyfire”, “Typewriter” opened a new door of opportunities for the dashing actor.

Swastika has been an established star in Bengal for a while but her tryst with Bollywood wasn’t having much of an impact. She did a role in the Sushant Singh Rajput-starrer “Detective Byomkesh Bakshy” as well as films like “The Stoneman Murders” and “Mumbai Cutting”, but was far from a recognised face among Bollywood fans. However, her natural acting in Sushant’s last film, “Dil Bechara”, which released on OTT won hearts nationally. The digital space seems to have welcomed Swastika. OTT shows like “Black Widows” and “Paatal Lok” led to more prominent performances in ‘Criminal Justice 2’, the much-acclaimed OTT film ‘Qala’.

Parambrata Chattopadhyay believes the opening up of OTT platforms has helped him find ‘sensible’ work in Hindi cinema. According to the actor, who made his Hindi cinema debut with Vidya Balan's ‘Kahaani’, ‘Pari’ in 2018 marked the beginning of the second phase of his career in the industry and it has been more fruitful. The actor, who was most recently seen in ‘Bulbbul’, ‘Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi’, ‘Kaun Pravin Tambe?’ and ‘Netflix’ show ‘Aranyak’ and ‘Jehanabad - Of Love & War’ to name a few, said the aim is to find interesting roles, irrespective of their length.

After winning hearts as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi in the 1st season of Delhi Crime in 2019, a fictionalised retelling of the brutal 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder case, Shefali Shah came back with the sophomore season of the crime drama in 2022 and just like season 1, she stole the show with her strong screen presence. Shefali as a powerful yet vulnerable police officer shines in every frame. After tiptoeing around fame for close to 20 years, Shefali Shah is finally staking her claim to the spotlight with shows like ‘Human’, ‘Jalsa’.

Jitendra Kumar aka Jeetu Bhaiya has won our hearts through his exceptional acting skills. Being an IIT Kharagpur graduate, he has changed his path and mastered acting through several web series and movies. Popularly known for critically-acclaimed series like ‘Kota Factory’, ‘Panchayat’, ‘Chaman Bahaar’ the actor has made a place in everybody’s heart. His major breakthrough was ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan’.

Starting her career with TV show ‘Jibon Niye Khela’ Paoli went on to prove herself to be one of the most-sought after artists in this industry, especially in the national OTT space. She made her Bollywood debut with ‘Hate Story’ and has also featured in several OTT projects. Be it ‘Bulbul’, ‘Kaali’, or ‘The Great Indian Murder’, ‘Karm Yuddh’ Paoli proved her acting chops time and again. She is ready to jump into any film or role that challenges her courage to do the unusual and her talent. Paoli feels another interesting change that has come about in the last few years – especially during the pandemic – is that Indian language films (or regional cinema in popular terms) are reaching out to a wider audience, thanks to OTT platforms.