‘The audience needs different stuff, so you have to take that risk’

When sequels and seasons are the order of the day in showbiz, the time for longwinded stories on TV is perhaps up, or so feels actor Gautam Rode, who is convinced the sole winner today is “good content”.

He avers, “The need of the day is good content. There are things (shows) that are going on and on and on. We have to experiment and evolve if we have to reach somewhere in content and entertainment.”

And what caught his eye this year was the web series, Delhi Crime. “What I loved about the show was that, even though it was a very easy space for makers to show rape and garner sympathy, they did nothing of that sort. Instead, it was just a close up of that girl who was narrating the story, and it was so impactful that I had tears in my eyes,” he says.

“If you want a family audience to see it, you have to think on those lines as well. Shows like The Family Man or Delhi Crime give hope that good content is getting made and it will get made, rather than just sex and abuses that we show in the name of content. That doesn’t make sense to me at all,” he adds.

The actor, who has worked in several limited-episode television shows such as Saraswatichandra, Suryaputra Karn and Kaal Bhairav Rahasya, believes that stories go for a toss if they continue for several years altogether.

“After a while, it goes on auto pilot, and everyone is on auto pilot — the writers, the production... I am not saying it’s a bad thing. But for a person like me, who wants to grow as an actor, I feel the growth stops if you continue with one character for a very long time,” he says.

This is why he believes that irrespective of the medium, content makers need to bring out interesting stories and tell them in an engaging way. “The audience also needs different stuff, so you have to take that risk to present it to them. A few will fail, but if the trend follows, maybe a few will succeed as well,” Gautam adds.