Nimrat Kaur says there is an ‘abundance of work’ on OTT, people are pushed to write better, no place for mediocrity

Nimrat described School of Lies as a compelling story about inconvenient truths that adults, at times, shy away from. The actor hopes to start a conversation about the importance of mental health via the show. She said, “School of Lies is a very important story, and I am very happy that I could lend myself to bringing this story to the audience. It is full of twists and turns and questions that we, as adults, must ask ourselves, and topics that we must be sensitive towards. It is a very important conversation that we are hoping will start after they watch the show. It is a show about very complex situations, a very difficult reality, inconvenient truths that we, as adults, don’t want to talk about, we don’t want to address our childhood demons. It is an important show with a very important message that demands a patient watch. It is a compelling story about students and what happens in their school and how it makes or breaks the child.”

Nimrat’s last big screen release was 2016’s Airlift. She was then seen in Dasvi, the Abhishek Bachchan-starrer that released directly on the web. When asked if she thinks actors like her are receiving better opportunities with the emergence of OTT, she said that there is no room for mediocrity these days.

 

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She said, “There is an abundance of work, and now people are pushed to write more and more interesting parts and mediocrity won’t work anymore. People do not have the time for things that are not going to interest them, so better content is being written, one is spoilt for choice for the kind of parts that are coming one’s way. So, it is a fun time to work with interesting minds, people, actors, and with the abundance of work what happens is that you have a better choice of subjects to choose from. It’s become really exciting, and I think every actor will agree with me that everybody is getting an opportunity to express themselves. Films are no longer the only place where you can creatively express yourself, there is long format, so many other possibilities of being able to work.”

Nimrat has continuously attached herself to powerful roles, and has stayed away from glamorous roles. Opening up about her journey as an actor, she said, “In all these years, I have only picked roles that have spoken to me, that make sense to me, that I feel like I want to attach myself to… ”

“It is not that I don’t enjoy a full-blown entertaining Hindi film, I have grown up with that kind of stuff, so I have absolutely no qualms in doing something like that. It is just the question of what kind of combination of things came my way. Whatever I felt right — instinctively and emotionally — and how I connected with that part, that’s pretty much it,” she added.

 

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But since it has been over five years since her last theatrical release, does she miss the rush of being seen on the big screen? She replies, “Well, yes, the novelty of being on the big screen is honestly unparalleled. I don’t think anything comes close to the experience of watching something on screen and I am a big big screen person. I love watching films in the theatre myself. It’s just a thing of how you can’t control that, it is a question of when something comes your way. These days, many times you sign a project but you don’t really know whether it will release on OTT or the big screen as that’s the call for the producer to make, so it’s not up to us really. I feel that, at this point in time, if you ask me, then my only interest is in doing exciting, lovely work, that’s it. Whether it comes on the big screen or on OTT is not something I really care about. I just want my work to be out there for people to watch, for me to keep experimenting and keep challenging myself as an actor.”

Does an actor who has done extensive work on the web for some time now fear that audiences will no longer want to pay to watch them on the big screen? According to her, an intelligent audience comes for the story. She said, “I think the audience has become very smart. I don’t think that anybody really has that kind of point of view, I really don’t think so. So, I think it is just the question of playing exciting parts and remaining and relevant for the right reasons, that’s all, nothing else.”

Nimrat has also appeared in critically appreciated international shows such as Homeland and Wayward Pines. Nimrat started her international journey way back in 2014. However, with Priyanka Chopra doing Citadel and other films in the West, there is a fresh interest in the career of Indian actors abroad. When asked if this development has brought about any change in the kind of roles Indian actors are offered in the West, Nimrat said, “I think there is a global cross correlation of actors, everybody is working everywhere. A lot of projects also get mounted because of the following people enjoy and the joy of fandom that people have. Eventually, everybody wants their work to travel in different parts of the world, even the makers want that to happen.”

“Today is the best time for that, because digitally, the world has become an even smaller place. A person sitting in Mumbai can access absolutely any and everything that’s happening anywhere in the world. So, these are great times and I think things are only going to get better. Actors before our time have done incredible work, whether it is Amrish Puri, Saeed Jaffrey, Om Puri, Irrfan (Khan) of course, people have done remarkable, landmark work. With changing times, what happens is that you enjoy the advantages of what that’s going to break. That’s what’s happening, and it is lovely,” Nimrat concluded.