This year had certainly been a year of the rise of digital space in India with web series such as Sacred Games and Mirzapur doing well. While the trend has proved that ‘content is the king’, Bollywood actors are also turning to web series to cash in on the situation.
Though Swara Bhaskar ventured into the world of online content in 2016, she is set to mark her comeback on the platform with the second season of web series, It’s Not That Simple, where she’ll be seen portraying Mira Verma. It also features Sumeet Vyas, Vivan Bhatena and Karanveer Mehra.
On reliving the character, she says, “It’s both easy and difficult, as you have the body memory of having played that character before, so it’s sort of a body recall for you and your mind becomes almost the template of what you have done in the past. But, I think the difficult part is to be aware of that and control that.”
While the first season showcased the Veer Di Wedding actor as a woman stuck in an unhappy marriage, a lot has changed in her life now. “Mira is now divorced. She’s single and free of her unhealthy relationship. She’s independent and ambitious,” she says, adding, “There’s a self-confidence that you’ll now see in her, which was missing in the first series.”
Swara’s character struggles to find a balance between making a successful career, being a mother, and finding the missing love again. She reveals, “It was nice to go back to a similar character and it was a challenge to do something new.”
The actor will also begin shooting another series, Flesh, in which she will be playing a cop for the first time. It revolves around the human trafficking industry. She says, “This role will be a challenge for me. But I am quite excited that I accepted this. Fearlessness is one quality that I have always tried to invite in my life and work.”
Happy with the popularity that online platform has gained, Swara says the space is here to stay. “Everyone is involved in it. Also, the thing is that, in India, we have a huge number of people who have now access to smartphones and digital medium. So, I feel it is justified to invest in this medium. I believe it’s going to be a good year for online content. It’s an exciting time for me. I am so happy to be a part of it again,”
she adds.
Swara is of the view that ‘no-censorship’ is a big advantage to the digital space. “I think the web space is able to do a lot of interesting stuff because there’s no pressure of the censor board, and there is no question of TRPs. So, people can write and create new things,” she adds. Swara’s another web series Rasbhari will be releasing next year, followed by her Bollywood projects. In the series, she will play an English teacher who catches the fancy of a Class XI student.