Dia Mirza calls OTT Potential ‘the beginning’

Dia Mirza spoke about OTT platforms and said that we are still in the early stages of exploring its potential.

The actress has been involved with streaming platforms both in front of the camera and as a producer.

She admitted that the medium has been fulfilling in more ways than one.

Dia explained: “I have done Kaafir and produced Mind the Malhotras for OTT platforms.

“As an actor and producer, who has been in the industry for over two decades, this new medium has excited, challenged and inspired me to discover new facets of storytelling and even of performance craft.

“This is a vast, limitless horizon and we are just beginning to explore its potential.”

Dia went on to say that she believes the creative freedom that digital platforms offer is refreshing.

She continued: “We work with a limited time and narrative space in cinema, and that imposes certain constraints and limitations upon what we can do with a character and a story.

“Whereas on OTT platforms, you get the freedom to nuance, detail and layer a theme in multiple ways and to add hitherto unexplored dimensions to characters.”

Stating that OTT platforms are exciting, Dia added:

“There’s now a great potential to not just tell the kinds of stories I really want to tell, but also to create without the pressure of appeasing the box office.”

When it comes to opportunities, Dia Mirza feels that OTT platforms have been better for actors.

She revealed that some of her favourite performances over the past few years have been by actors in web series.

“We wouldn’t have discovered just how brilliant they are if they had been restricted to cinema.”

“In my own context, I can say that the character of Kainaaz in Kaafir wouldn’t have come my way in cinema.

“Working in long format allowed me to immerse myself in the detailing of my character and brought me so much satisfaction as a performer.”

Dia added that OTT stories have a lot of space for diverse narratives “for women to play complex and richly layered protagonists. There is a certain creative freedom too which I hope will continue to exist in this space”.

On the work front, Dia Mirza last appeared in the Telugu film Wild Dogs.