Siddharth Suryanarayan: ‘For me, craft and real human drama come before heroism’-Entertainment News , Firstpost

Siddharth will be debuting in the OTT space with Disney+ Hotstar’s Escaype Live. In an exclusive conversation with Firstpost, Siddharth explains that social media like any societal tool comes with its own benefits and perils. He is of the opinion that it’s like a substance and you don’t know when you can get addicted to it. He feels that we need to protect our children from the dark side of social media. Excerpts from the interview

Preparation for your role in Escaype Live…

It was a very complex character that we attempted. When I read the script for the first time, what first drew me was the skin of the show which was so ambitious and it cuts through so many cities and cuts through so many lives and it touches on social media as well. It puts perspective on what makes people do the things that they do on social media. The character that was given to me was very different from my real life. So, first I had to understand the character so that I can play the role with empathy. So, I had to understand my character.

What is your personal opinion on the shows on the talent sites? How can it affect children and even young adults?

 Social media like any societal tool comes with its own benefits and perils. I am of the opinion that it’s like a substance and you don’t know when you can get addicted to it. That’s the scary part and the moment the human being loses control and is in denial of the fact that they are addicted to something then that phenomenon takes over your life and you’re no longer in control of it. So, when you identify that social media has this kind of power, it can be really scary. I am deeply frightened that we are not doing enough to protect children and vulnerable young adults from social media.

Like the way you teach children about good touch and bad touch, that kind of education is needed in social media too. Otherwise, I compare it to throwing a child into the deep end of the swimming pool and asking him how to swim. There are kids who will learn it the harder way, but there will be kids who can also drown and that’s not acceptable. Social media is a very scary universe and I am very frightened as a citizen and as an adult as it can hamper the life of kids. Having said that there is also the freedom that social media brings and freedom needs to be handled with responsibility. There are great things that can come out of social media and I will not deny that it doesn’t have benefits, but again anything with benefits has a dark side too. If the person who is running the app entices them with three crores and egging them on how far will you go? Then there are people who want validation and attention through social media and they also need to ask how far will he/she go for three crores. So Escaype Live takes both sides into consideration that’s what makes it very fascinating as a study of today’s India.

Does business come before entertainment?

It’s like how you balance art and commerce.  It is like the egg and chicken situation. They will have to co-exist. They can be mutually exclusive like there can be art without commerce and there can be commerce without art. But once the line becomes a blur and now corporations are running the world and they will always put business before everything. Art and commerce, business and entertainment have to go hand in hand. One cannot justify the other, but they have to be respectful of each other. I don’t find playing a superhero exciting, rather playing a real person is more exciting. For me, craft and real human drama come before heroism. Though heroism is definitely a higher paying area, but for me acting and playing real people is the most satisfying thing. I never wanted to be a star, but I always wanted to be an actor. Cinema to me is not a hero vehicle, it is a storytelling device.

Your journey in the entertainment industry…

In the entertainment industry, the whole thing comes down to being told what to do. Now social media tells us to wake up and reach for the phone and check on who has put likes on our posts. For some people, it is bread and butter and for some it is survival. Similarly, when I started my career, we were told that we should do interviews every week, and we should always be photographed otherwise people will forget us. And you were expected to be seen in all the get-togethers otherwise how will you make contacts. I have not done any of these things. I have done very selective interviews. I have never spoken about my personal life. Each person has to do what they are comfortable doing and make peace with that.

Everybody working in the entertainment industry, not just actors had to make a tough choice because life is tough out here. The hours are crazy and we don’t have a gratuity or provident fund. I come from an MBA school where those things are taken for granted. The competition is high in the entertainment industry. But I still consider myself to be fortunate because I had the choice to make a living out of what I love the most. I am not here for fame or attention; I am here because I love being in the profession. So, after twenty years in the entertainment industry, I am still in the same position. The entertainment industry allows me to stay sane and I also allow myself that because you are only as strong as you allow yourself to be. I am a very secure person and so, neither the media nor the social media makes me insecure. I just want to give all the people a hug and say you are the best because at the end of the day everybody is going through tough times. Social media has the power to give that virtual hug also, so we have to look at the positives of social media. I won’t say that social media is a dark pool of negativity. I will say that it does exist for a very positive reason. And it is time we focus on the positives.

You are an MBA; how did you convince the people around you that you wanted to be an actor and not do anything related to business studies?

I am a very bull-headed person. I wanted to be an actor from the age of fifteen. But I was told very clearly by my family members that I had to finish my studies before stepping into the entertainment industry. I just stuck to my convictions and fortunately, I am one of those whose convictions paid off because the success rate in this industry is low and full of uncertainties.

On being a pan-Indian actor…

Pan-Indian is a terminology that came up in the last two years. But I consider myself to be an Indian actor. I speak multiple languages and I do all my films in my own voice. I am very respectful of all the languages. OTT has made other language films reach every part of the world. A lot of South films are dubbed in Hindi. It is a great time to be an Indian actor and it is even a greater time to be an Indian actor who speaks multiple languages.

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