Tight Schedules Make Actors Better, Says Pratik Chaudhary

Mumbai: Television actor Pratik Chaudhary is currently part of 'Silent Shikari', a vertical series by Balaji Telefilms. The actor believes he is fortunate to have worked with the production house and says the experience has been rewarding.

Describing his time on the project, Chaudhary said he worked for two days and found the experience outstanding. He believes actors across the industry would count themselves lucky to get a chance with Balaji Telefilms, given the strength of its content and its distinctive style of shooting. He was careful to note that other production houses and directors are also producing good work. However, he said, there are certain challenges in working with Balaji that can be very difficult.

On the differences between vertical and web series, Chaudhary said each has its own character. In a vertical format, he explained, the complete television narrative must be delivered in a compact form. Having initially believed television was the hardest medium to master, he said that after working in vertical format he felt nothing could be harder. He suggested that a future innovation might eventually make the format less demanding.

Timing, he said, remains the most significant problem. Actors seldom have enough time to do their work properly. Yet he feels this very limitation is what makes an actor sharper and more capable.

He further said that although he once believed his acting had been shaped entirely by television, vertical work has taught him a great deal. Because daily targets must be met within a few days, a large number of episodes are filmed in a short window. While the clips themselves are only five to ten minutes long, the scenes are long and demanding. Completing so many scenes in such a limited time gives an actor deep experience, he said, and he feels he has learned substantially from the format.

Chaudhary concluded with another observation. In television, actors generally work with two or three directors at a time unless they are changed. In vertical series, actors often get to collaborate with new directors and new content, without a fixed team. This, he said, allows actors to explore more and gain a wider range of skills.