Actor Parul Gulati (Hey Prabhu and Selection Day) is busy in the lockdown taking care of her hair extension business.”We could resume for it comes under the essential services category. Had there been no work, I would have just gone crazy sitting at home.”
Shifting gears to her acting craft, Parul says, the ongoing lockdown has been mixed fare for her. “While two more of my web series (Raikar Case and Illegal) have launched during the past 40 days, the shoots of my two more digital shows have gone on hold, and I am not pleased. Yet another show was about to be streamed but for COVID -19. On the positive side, with most folks stuck at home the above launches got much better compared to what we usually garner due to stiff competition on the OTT space. Also, since we did not have regular promotional tools, we went digitally all out doing multiple live sessions. I don’t think I must have pushed any show that hard on the www landscape. Voot brought a lot of ads on Instagram and YouTube, which are the new billboards.”
What is the way forward? “Learn to live with the new normal. Luckily there is more work on the webspace, and I am primarily a digital actor,” says Parul, who has also done a couple of TV serials as well.
“The best part is that people innovate to stay in the race, e.g. today lots of people are shooting from home. I too, have got a few TVC offers along the same lines.”
She had no comment on whether social distancing norms will put paid to a lot of intimate web content. “I have not thought about it so far.”
In closing when asked about the demise of Haq Se franchise, she says, “Season 2 took a long time in planning by then, it was too late. Also, younger sisters looked different as they grew out of teenage years. Last but not least, being unable to recreate the magic, we decided to cancel it rather than putting a half-hearted effort.”
