The trend on Hindi Television these days is to cast actors on the basis of their social media following. The most preferred actors of today are the social media influencers who create content, make reels etc. However, it is a known fact that they are not established actors. This shows in their progress as performers on television. Freelance Casting Director Vishal Sharma says that a casting person gets blamed when only the influencers and people with good social media standing, people who lipsync on songs/dialogues of others etc, are given chances, while the established actors who are good at their work do not get considered.
Says Vishal, “This is a big problem when we get channel recommendations to cast such influencers for roles. This is just on the basis of their followers, and there is nothing to do with acting. It is sad to ignore accomplished actors who are hard-working and follow the protocols of coming for auditions etc. There is no stability seen as in earlier times on TV now. And one of the main reasons for it is that we are forced to choose the cast not on the basis of calibre. These people do not know acting, do not know the value of hard work etc. We need to consider good actors for the apt roles. This will bring more stability and success rate in TV.”