‘OTT gives me creative satisfaction’
Having done an OTT show and daily soaps for five years, actor Kanika Mann is now keen to do more web-shows. She enjoys the certainty of a well-defined script, where she can portray a character better and set a graph for its growth.
On her visit to Lucknow, the Guddan Tumse Na Ho Payega actor says, “The best thing about a web-show is that we have a fixed story — from start to end. So, as an actor you can build a graph. Then you are playing relatable characters which people can connect with.”
Based on her experience on TV, she says, “In daily soaps, we don’t know what will be the story the next day! In my daily soap, I ended up playing a mother, a daughter and a ghost…which I did not know on day one. At the time my family used to say ‘your drama is getting too much’ but as actors we can’t help it as that’s the format of a TRP-driven daily soap.”
She hopes things will change slowly. “Having said that, the best thing about it is that people are watching you every day and you are reaching every household. TV gives us social security and good money but creative satisfaction we get on OTT,” she says candidly.
Born and brought up in Panipat, Haryana, acting happened by chance. “While I was studying, acting was nowhere on my mind. But, I was good in extra-curricular
In my daily soap, I ended up playing a mother, a daughter and a ghost…
MANN, KANIKA Actor
activities and participated in everything. When I was pursuing a law degree from Punjab University, I got my first music video, a Punjabi song by Harman Gill (2016), through social media. I did it with full conviction and people accepted it well. Then, I did some other videos as well. After completing my studies, I told my family, and then with their permission, came to Mumbai.”
She came to Mumbai with a show in hand. “I auditioned while studying and was selected. So, the day I reached I started shooting as a Haryanvi character in Bado Bahu for six months. Then I took a break for two months for the master’s exam and soon I got an offer for Guddan which continued till January 2021.”
Mann is not a trained actor. “I have learnt everything on the go. A lot of people ask me what my acting process is? So, what I do is that I put myself in that character and then build it accordingly. Though it’s not an easy thing and it enters my personal life as well. It took me many months to come out of my last show’s character. In my latest series, Roohaniyat ,I played a 19-year-old who is at the same time very mature. Since I am 28, it was tough to maintain the bubbliness of a teen but I enjoyed the process of balancing out everything.”