Honey, They Shrunk Your Screen

Why actors—both from the fringes and the mainstream— are gravitating towards OTT platforms

- Sayan Chakraborty

TILL 2014, SUMEET VYAS, WITH 14 years of acting behind him, was just another thespian waiting in the wings. He had dabbled in theatre, television and blink-and-you-miss roles in films since he was 17. While Vyas had wangled key roles in some television serials, he says he always wanted to focus on cinema. There were tiny roles in movies like Aarakshan and Aurangzeb but, says Vyas, “The last thing that did decently for me was English Vinglish (in 2012).” He further tells Forbes India over phone: “Film actors and directors didn’t pay much heed to TV actors. It was almost like making a fresh start after spending so many years in acting.”

However, Vyas did not have to deal with this obscurity for long, thanks to a phenomenon that was beginning to unfold in India around that time. It was called the web series, a show that can be viewed only on the internet. In early 2014, Vyas agreed to act in such a show, The Viral Fever’s Permanent Roommates, despite being paid a pittance. “I was like, we are anyway working in theatre for free, so it doesn’t matter if they pay or not,” he jokes.

The shooting proved to be more cumbersome than he had anticipated. “The first season was supposed to be a week long shoot. But it took about six days to shoot the first episode itself,” recalls Vyas, who was beginning to get impatient. After all, engagements that paid his bills had to be put on the backburner.

It all changed with the third episode, which was uploaded on YouTube one November midnight, and clocked about 4 lakh views by 7 am. “That is when I realised that it was big and not something that you could take casually. By the time the last episode came out, people had started clicking pictures with me, complimenting me,” says Vyas.