‘An OTT release is great, but feels incomplete’

Actor Akansha Ranjan Kapoor is enjoying her journey in the OTT world, but she does miss the excitement and feeling of a bigscreen debut.

Last year, when the lockdown was imposed, she made her debut with Guilty, which premiered on an OTT platform, and her second project, an anthology series, Ray, also released on the web. “I am more than happy my projects are being released on OTT because more people get to watch it. They can also watch it 10 years from now. So, especially at this point of time, I think releasing on OTT is great,” Kapoor admits. However, she says this experience is accompanied by an “incomplete feeling”.

“I remember everyone asking me, ‘How excited are you that your film is releasing tomorrow?’. And I was like, ‘I don’t even feel that it is releasing tomorrow’, ” says the 25-year-old.

The actor further adds, “[The next day], I went for lunch with my girlfriends to celebrate and I bumped into people, who were like, ‘Aye! Your film is releasing today’. That is not a normal release day. Normally, you are busy promoting and working, and I’m just going for lunch. That feeling was very unnerving. The feeling on release is supposed to be high but it was just another day for me.”

For Kapoor, it was very upsetting “because everything that comes with a release — the fear and excitement — wasn’t there”.

That said, she is grateful that her projects are releasing at least, and has made peace with the fact that “most of the projects will continue to release on digital platforms for another year”.

“I’m very content with where I am in my life. I am excited about where I am today and grateful. And when my film opens on the big screen toh double excited hungi,” she ends on an optimistic note.