WEB HAS RAISED THE STANDARDS FOR CONTENT, SAYS RAKUL

Rakul Preet Singh feels this is a great time for the entertainment industry as everyone can take liberty with the stories they want to tell and how they want to present them

Jliberty that one can take in terms of storytelling, casting, presentation etc. It has raised the standards so high that people are now going to compare everything with the content they’ve seen during this time. So, I think it’s a great time for the entertainment industry,” adds Singh, highlighting that the scope for writing great characters is better on the web. Talking about characterisation, there has been a constant discussion around how femalefronted stories needs to be made in abundance. Reacting, Singh, 30, says, “For me, it’s about the existence of important roles for women. And I think such stories and characters are being created now. They were written earlier, too, and actors like [late] Meena Kumari ji, [late] Nargis ji and even Tabu and Kajol have done and are still doing such roles. We also have to understand that there are a variety of films that are being made that focus on different stories,” explains Singh, who has eight films releasing this year including two Tamil and two Telugu films, apart from Mayday, Thank God, Attack and another untitled project in Bollywood. While all these films are expected to hit theatres, there have been many films since 2020 that have taken the OTT route. “At the end of the day, the content needs to reach the audience. Of course, we all love theatres and want it to be fully functional. We need to start pushing that section of livelihood back again. But we also want our projects to release, to offer the audience something new. So, some had to opt for a direct-to-ott release. We have to coexist,” she concludes. oining the growing list of celebs singing praises for the web, actor Rakul Preet Singh says the OTT boom that was forthcoming in the next four-five years happened in 2020 itself due to the pandemic. “Indian audience got exposed to a lot of regional and international content. That not just improved their taste but also pushed us to deliver better content. With the exploration of the web, there is so much more content being made. This has led to more opportunities for people,” she says. Regarding the kind of content OTT platforms are churning out, the actor shares that another positive aspect of this is the opportunity to experiment more. “There’s so much Shreya Mukherjee