Vikrant Massey says he left TV as it became misogynistic, reveals fighting with executives: ‘People with MBA made a fool out of us’

“There were many, which were happening repetitively, which is why I left TV. Universally, everyone was doing the same thing. Be it any field, when a certain thing works, only its versions are then replicated. So on TV when misogynistic content worked, which included bahu pe atyavchaar, there were takers as well so people were making just that for TRP,” Vikrant said.

The actor recalled how he did TV for ten years–he started acting at the age of 17–.but eventually realised how things weren’t falling into place. “On TV, a lot of irritating things would happen, like MBAs calling the shots on stories. They would say, ‘Make only these kinds of episodes for rating, as per our internal research.’

“They really made a fool out of many by saying this ‘internal research’ and asking for a ‘maha episode’, which would be of one hour. After a point, I fought with them and said I won’t do it.”

The actor said he put his foot down as something within him was “churning” and he felt “under-utilised” as an actor. “I thought I can do a lot more, but they are not able to utilise me. My contract in Balika Vadhu was just for two months, it was a cameo. But people loved it so much it went on for two years. I did it for that long because I believed in the content I was doing. But after that maza nahi aaya kuch shows mein.” Vikrant also revealed working non-stop for 110 hours “without sleeping” while he was doing a TV show.

Vikrant ended the conversation by saying that the TV industry, with its working hours and 90-day payment cycle, is “exploitative” in nature. The actor was recently seen in 12th Fail. The Vidhu Vinod Chopra directorial, which was released last year to acclaim, emerged as a surprise hit of 2023.

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