OTTplay Awards 2022: I am a big fan of Imtiaz Ali’s writing, so the win for She Season 2 is special: Kishore

Last Saturday, the first edition of the OTTplay Awards and Conclave 2022 took place in Mumbai, during which the best in the business of content creation for OTT were feted. One of them was Bengaluru-based actor Kishore, who has a footprint across all south Indian industries with his body of work, as well as in Hindi too. The actor took home the Best Actor in a Negative Role (Series) for his role as Nayak in She, the second season of which came out recently and concluded his story arc.

Receiving his award from Jai Bhim maker TJ Gnanavel, Kishore had said, “I don’t know if I deserve this award, but I definitely believe that my team deserves this. I am taking this on their behalf. Thanks to my writer Imtiaz Ali, who believed that I fit into the role that he wrote. Thanks to Arif Ali ji who directed the show and thanks to my ‘She’, Aditi (Pohankar).”

The actor, who had flown in from Chennai, where he was shooting for an upcoming Tamil web series, made a whirlwind trip back home to Bengaluru after the OTTplay Awards 2022, before heading off to Varanasi for the shoot of a Hindi film. We caught up with Kishore for a quick tete-a-tete about what he thought of our ‘One Nation, One OTT Award’ concept, and his own win, among others. “Who would have thought that Farhan Akhtar and Arya would be nominated in the same category and share the stage too, with both winning Best Actor nods. That in itself is the biggest achievement of the OTTplay Awards 2022. Getting together the whole of the Indian cinema industry was nice. Normally, regional cinema doesn’t always get the due it deserves and then the OTTplay Awards came along, with the intention of levelling the playing field. This is a show that proved that regional cinema is not inferior to Bollywood. Everyone gets representation and that’s what stood out for me at the event,” said the actor, adding that events like the OTTplay Awards will foster healthy interaction between members of different film industries.

Kishore is hopeful that in the years to come, Kannada cinema will be better represented at the OTTplay Awards. “We have a long way to go and need to evolve as an industry and as storytellers. We need to build an audience that is drawn to our films. That will happen only when we stop making bad films. We had people who came into the industry for all the wrong reasons and audiences began to shy away from Kannada cinema. There is a massive course correction required to make streaming platforms take note of the content produced here,” he reasons.

Speaking about his own win at the awards, Kishore says that when he was approached for a role in She, he did not give it a second thought because it was written by Imtiaz Ali, a filmmaker he admires. “I have watched all of Imtiaz’s films; I like his writing and the characters he creates. I can relate to him. Moreover, the role he had in mind for me was very nice. This was a major character in a Hindi series. I thoroughly enjoyed playing Nayak in She,” says the actor, who reprised the character in the second season as well.