OTT has changed Bollywood, has made it more inclusive says ex-Miss India Earth Hasleen Kaur

Former Miss India Earth, entrepreneur and Bollywood actor Hasleen Kaur in an exclusive conversation with BusinessToday revealed that the entertainment industry today has changed a lot, thanks to OTT. The former pageant winner said she considers the OTT platform a boom for diversity in roles and characters.

"The quintessence part where an actress had to look a certain way no longer exists," Hasleen said. Talking about the film industry's inclusiveness towards, especially female actors, the actor stated that the roles now created are more realistic than they were earlier.

According to her, the best part of the boom in diversity in Indian film industry is that the audience has not only embraced it, but actually demand more diversity and inclusiveness. "The audience wants to see real people today, not someone you would aspire to be. This is exactly how the entertainment and fashion industry should be. People should be able to relate with characters. Nobody is now interested in a fantasy world with perfect bodies and skin tones," Kaur said. 

She explained how even the fashion industry is changing and bridging the gender, colour and body barriers. Hailing from the fashion industry, Kaur pointed out: "The fashion industry is opening up the ramp for models of all shapes and sizes. There is no gender disparity. The market is open for models of all gender."

"There is no gender disparity. A lot of gender fluid brands have come in," she said, adding that models are now wearing whatever they feel good in.

Netflix's series 'Cat'

Hasleen Kaur got her big Bollywood push through OTT.  Her latest project, the webseries CAT released on Netflix and has been getting great ratings so far. In the 8-episode show, Hasleen Kaur plays the role of a Punjabi cop who is strong and fearless. Speaking about how she prepared for the role 'Babita', Kaur said: "I did my homework. I rehearsed all of my scenes and dialogues."

CAT premiered on Netlfix on December 9 and all episodes can now be streamed. The cast list also includes Randeep Hooda, Geeta Aggarwal, Dakssh Ajit Singh, Jaipreet Singh, Sukhwinder Chahal, Pramod Pathal, KP Singh, and Kavya Thapar.

The crime thriller is about the Punjab hinterlands and follows the story of an innocent man, who is thrown into a deep, drug trafficking conspiracy between gang lords, cops and political powers. The show is produced by Movie Tunnel Productions in association with Jelly Bean Entertainment.
 

Also read: Indian Media and entertainment sector, massive market for AWS

Also read: TV, OTTs and theatres will co-exist, not a threat to each other, says ZEE5's top exec Manish Kalra