Casting A Web

She’s always ready to try something different, whether it’s in her choice of roles or venturing into the relatively new world of web series. The talented and fearless Swara Bhaskar tells Hi! Blitz why she was drawn to a story about extra-marital affairs and the one dream role she’s still hankering for.

You’re one of the first few actors to embrace the burgeoning medium of web series. What drew you to taking up It’s Not That Simple?

It’s a really exciting new space that has opened up in our industry. In terms of content, I think web series is a big platform for actors because it is fresh with new stories and characters, and most importantly, it’s outside the clutches of the censor board or TRPs or production expectations. So you get a lot more freedom. Everyone, especially the youth, is on their smart phones these days so it’s a really new and intimate way of connecting to audiences. We’ve had a lot of shows about affairs and relationships, but this is the first time we have a show about a woman who is contemplating having an extra-marital affair shown from the woman’s point of view.

That there’s no censor board for web series—how good is that! Should the censor board be done away in entirety?

I frankly think the role of the censor board needs to be re-examined very fundamentally by our government and the courts. Barring the two years when Leela Samson chaired it when it was a genuinely enlightened and progressive committee, the other years the censor board has only played a very harmful role. And I can definitely say this about the Hindi film industry for sure because I have been closely watching it for the last few years... The censor board is the central board for film ‘certification’— it is not the job of the censor board to dictate cuts and tell film makers what they can or cannot have and I don’t know why they keep doing it!

What has the reaction been like to the web show and what’s been the best response you’ve received?