As Mirzapur: The Movie continues its strong run at the box office, Shriya Pilgaonkar is experiencing a milestone that feels unreal - her first 100-crore theatrical success. For an actor whose most substantial body of work over the last few years has been on OTT, the response to Mirzapur has reinforced her decision to consciously widen her canvas and return to theatrical cinema. With Haiwaan, starring Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan and directed by Priyadarshan, also arriving this month, Pilgaonkar finds herself at a juncture where she is looking to move seamlessly between mediums without allowing either to define her.
“With Mirzapur, we were hopeful, but we couldn't have gauged this scale because it was an experiment. The series has a cult following, but the audience relationship with it has been through OTT and digital, so it was hard to know how that would translate into a theatrical audience,” she says.
A still from ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’
For Pilgaonkar, however, the best part of the film's success goes beyond the numbers. It is also about seeing the audience relationship she built through streaming translate to the big screen.“Box office is not about numbers alone. Essentially, it's about the audience saying that we've come here because we are excited about the story and these characters. After getting love for my work on OTT, to see this translate into a theatrical space is definitely a different kind of validation, and I think that is important in this film industry. I've never wanted any medium to define me. The way I've navigated my career has not been through strategy, but purely through gut instinct and a curiosity to be part of good stories. However, because it's an industry of perception, one must understand that the screen on which the audience watches you plays a big role in how they see you. Because I had done a lot of OTT in the past few years, I felt it was very important for me to widen my canvas and be able to do theatricals. At the end of the day, that does play a big role in perception within the industry as well as the kind of opportunities that may come your way.”
She is equally clear that this isn't about abandoning OTT. If anything, she wants the freedom to move between formats, genres and characters. “I don't see doing films as moving away from OTT. It's just that I want the freedom to be able to move between these mediums, genres and characters. After Mandala Murders, I consciously decided that I wanted to focus more on film work because I missed the medium and format of films. After Fan, even though I'd done Bhangra Paa Le and some special appearances, there wasn't another theatrical that had come my way. I think it's important for an actor to be able to do different mediums because otherwise the industry can be very quick to box you as just an OTT actor. Good acting doesn't necessarily always guarantee good work because positioning and mounting play a huge role in the quality of work that comes to an actor. Doing a commercial film definitely plays a big role in perception and how people see you. For actors like me, who've done most of our work on OTT, having a commercial success by our side just puts you in a better position to be seen differently and to be seen as capable of also holding space on the big screen.”
She believes Mirzapur's theatrical success can have implications beyond the cast as well, particularly at a time when the industry is looking for the right balance between scale and substance.
“Commercial cinema has the power to bring good storytelling and strong performances to a much larger audience. When a film like Mirzapur does well with capable actors and a compelling story, and then succeeds theatrically, I think it sends an important message to the industry that audiences are willing to show up for substance as well as scale. It would be amazing if we can create a space where authentic casting is also encouraged for commercial cinema. The success of Mirzapur, I hope, is a message that casting good actors authentically to the script does pay off.”
Shriya Pilgaonkar and Priyadarshan
That makes Haiwaan, her next theatrical, particularly meaningful. Directed by Priyadarshan and co-starring Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan, the film gives Pilgaonkar another opportunity to inhabit a very different commercial space. “Being part of a commercial film is some sort of validation at this point because it's a medium and a space that I haven't explored before. And this is Priyadarshan's 98th film, so it's iconic to be part of this film, with Akshay and Saif coming together and actors I've grown up watching. I'm very excited about it. The kind of clarity Priyadarshan sir has only comes with experience. Because he's a filmmaker who's also shot on film, you can tell how mindful he is of resources and economics. He's somebody who barely takes one or two takes if he gets what he wants. He has that much clarity with his detailing. Very often, directors want to take all possible angles and create the film on the edit, but he was very clear about his edit as well. As actors, we'd be like, ‘Oh, okay, we're done with one take,’ but if he got what he wanted, he moved on.”
For Pilgaonkar, the next phase is therefore less about choosing between OTT and theatrical cinema and more about choosing work that can surprise audiences. “I am hungry to be reimagined and I am only going to take up things that will present me differently now, genres that will break away from the things I've done. There is so much more I want to do even in the commercial space, but without compromising on the quality of work that I always chase.”
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