Shriya Pilgaonkar calls out industry’s ‘stereotyping’ culture

Shriya Pilgaonkar says she is entering an interesting new phase in her career as she gears up for two major theatrical releases this year — Mirzapur: The Movie and Haiwaan. After spending the last few years building a presence on OTT platforms with shows such as Mirzapur, The Broken News and Guilty Minds, the actress says she is excited to return to projects made for the big screen.“The past few years, I focused more on OTT projects, and I truly enjoyed that phase. But I’m very excited to now be part of two big theatrical films. Everybody is looking forward to Mirzapur: The Movie, and there’s already so much curiosity around what the film will be like. I’m also thrilled to be part of Haiwaan with Priyadarshan sir, Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar,” Shriya says.The actor also opened up about the challenges performers often face after becoming strongly associated with OTT content. “The industry can be very quick to stereotype you. When you do a lot of work on OTT, sometimes you get labelled as an ‘OTT actor’, and film opportunities can suffer because of that. I’ve always been mindful of it. Going forward, I want to prioritise doing good films,” she says.