Rohit Saraf and director Nikkhil Advani dismiss the divide between content creators and traditional actors, arguing talent and audience connection matter more than origin. Citing Saraf’s work with Prajakta Koli in Mismatched and Bhuvan Bam in The Revolutionaries, they stress YouTubers are already acting, performing and entertaining, making the backlash against their casting baseless and outdated.
As THR India sits down with Rohit Saraf and filmmaker Nikkhil Advani to talk about his upcoming period drama The Revolutionaries, one of the topics that have both aligned opinions on is the resurfacing debate about content creators turning actors.
Having led the romantic drama series Mismatched opposite YouTuber-actor Prajakta Koli — and now sharing the screen with Bhuvan Bam — who entered the entertainment landscape as a comedian and is now part of Advani's period drama as Indian freedom fighter Rash Behari Bose, Saraf holds a firm stance on this narrative, tying it into the basic equation of talent and connect between an actor and the character.
"I feel that people with talent should get the parts. It's got nothing to do with where you come from. That's ridiculous," says Saraf, sharing that both Koli and Bam have been "able shoulders" you can't find a single false note in. "They're extremely capable," he says, adding that what really matters is the talent, not whether you're a YouTuber or come from a film background.
"I can't believe we're still having a conversation where people think that content creators should not be film actors or in leading roles. It's absolutely ridiculous. It doesn't make sense. It's baseless."
Later into the conversation, as Advani is explaining the film's arc, the characters he has created in the series and the solid amount of work and research that back each, he finds a way to connect this to the larger debate surrounding social media stars.
"It's all about connect right? Whether it's Prajakta or Bhuvan, they connect with the audience like this," he says, snapping his fingers.
"Whether you have come from television, like in the case of Shah Rukh Khan from the television series Fauji, whether it is people who come from YouTube, or those who have gone to film school... it's all about connect. If you don't connect, nobody's going to be bothered about you. The format (you come from) isn't important anymore."