Actor Mahesh Shetty, known for his memorable roles in television including Pavitra Rishta, has now been focusing more on OTT and Bollywood projects for quite some time now, expanding his horizons beyond the small screen. He tells us, “Television gave me a lot of love and respect as an actor, but I wanted to pursue different mediums, be it theater or OTT or films, I am here because of TV. I’m actually still open to TV, but only when something interesting comes up,” he said, adding, “Wherever I get a chance to act, I want to be there. I believe in going with the flow and not limiting myself to any particular medium.
With an open-minded approach towards opportunities, Shetty looks forward to combining his theater practice with other work. “Whenever I get some time, I like to revisit my theater days. Anyway, times have changed now and artists are acting together in different mediums. Even newcomers have to face the same struggle to get work, be it OTT or Bollywood. So, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re coming from TV or what,” the 39-year-old expressed.
Emphasizing the essence of creative fulfillment, Shetty outlined his criteria for selecting roles, prioritizing essence over stereotypes. The Fighter actor confirms and adds, “The kind of roles I am looking forward to, they should be creatively satisfying for me and should give me good sleep at the end of the day.” In limiting oneself to only the hero-antagonist tag. I look more broadly at the projects and scripts that come to me. I am mainly looking forward to doing different characters with acting potential.
Having previously ventured into the OTT space, Shetty praised the platform for its creative freedom and abundance of opportunities. “I have done some OTT shows before. Creatively, it is very satisfying because you get to explore a lot of good characters, content and stories,” highlights Shetty, who is looking forward to his next OTT release Kaan Khajura.
The actor has had his Bollywood projects with significant breaks this year with Banjo (2016), Bhuj: The Pride of India (2021) and now Fighter. Ask him why, he says, “Keeping a gap between all my projects has always been a conscious decision. If something good comes up, something challenging comes up or I am very interested in it, then only I adopt it. I didn’t want to randomly choose things that didn’t interest me. I was happily doing theater and I still do, I keep traveling and that’s what keeps me busy.
