Kritika Karma says television actors are not held at par with movie stars. The actor, who made a transition from small to the big screen, is currently busy exploring the OTT space.
Known for TV shows like Kitani Mohabbat Hai, Kuch Toh Log Kahenge, and Reporters, she appeared in films including Mitron and Bheed. Her stronghold in digital platform came with Bambai Meri Jaan, Gyaarah Gyaarah and Saare Jahan Se Accha. Tasting all waters, Kritika looks back at her journey and her stint with television.
TV actors Vs film actors
In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, she reacted to people categorising actors by their medium. “For the longest time, I did not believe in this distinction of small and big screen actors. I thought this was just a rough sorting, like we do with stuff in our drawers. But actually, even the respect part has been categorised according to that,” she said.
“I remember Rupali Ganguly saying why don’t we have a National Award category for television. Acting on TV is not considered a craft,” she said on a retrospective note.
No National Award for TV actors
Kritika has time and again spoken on how she quit TV due to lack of creativity. Agreeing to how soap operas are written on set, she added, “Ofcourse there’s time constraint and issue of character building. Even I agree with those problems. Market decides if we must have daily soaps, only then there’s business. So TV serials are an everyday thing and even written pretty much on set or one day before.”
According to Kritika, the trend of urgency where writers and actors don’t get time to build the characters becomes its weak point. “TRPs decide what will be made and shown. I don’t agree with this process. But then we are also acknowledging that people who work on TV are not artists, and that’s why they aren’t recognised at National Awards. There’s an unsaid understanding that it is a profitable job, but there isn’t art in that,” she opined.
Kritika will next be seen in a film, directed by Anusha Rizvi, also starring Juhi Babbar, Shreya Dhanwanthary, and other women actors.