Rana Naidu actor Surveen Chawla: You can go back to the 1950s and find women's parts written exactly as they are today | Exclusive

Surveen Chawla has been a part of all three media of entertainment. She started her journey with television in the early 2000s with Kahin Toh Hoga (2003) and then forayed into films in the 2010s, where she shot to fame with Ugly (2013). Soon after that, in 2018, Surveen made her full-fledged OTT debut with Sacred Games, Netflix India's first original series. She is one of the actors who has seen the transition of female characters being written over the years and spoke at length about the same.

Talking about how Sacred Games opened opportunities on OTT, Surveen exclusively told OTTplay, "I was very lucky to be part of that journey, with Sacred Games being the first Indian show, and it literally did go global. I think, as a team, as makers, something was definitely done right; a lot was done right on that show. From then on, I've obviously seen that really became a talk, that series really did become a talk, and the whole trend of watching something on OTT, on your home screens, and then on your mobile phones, and then being on the go, has kind of paced that up ever since. Of course, there's been no looking back since people really took to watching content in the confines of their homes. Of course, theatre is theatre, and in that community of viewers, a whole collaborative watching experience is always going to remain, and I don't think that ethos is ever going to change about cinema. But it has undoubtedly opened many doors because, as good content is consumed, more space is made available for the creation of new content."

Talking more about how several actors have gotten better opportunities in the past couple of years, the actor went on to say, "As far as opportunities are concerned, there are far greater ones today on OTT than even films. Obviously, it does give you a lot more freedom as an artist to write better, to tell the kinds of stories that need to be told, and to be honest in telling them without having to dilute them. Of course, I personally feel a little bit has happened because of the censorship. But even then, this is far more true than on any other platform versus film. Opportunities are being created for actors where today's characters become so popular because of the way those parts have been written and because the writers have been able to write them that way. So all in all, it has created so much opportunity. There are so many people wanting to take up the profession, but earlier they lacked the stage and the opportunity, and today you have it."

On being asked about female characters being written nowadays, Surveen stated, "I think, as far as women are concerned, I've always said that women have backed women. Over the last few years, women have really started to back fellow women. Right for a variety of reasons, which we are all aware of, which is great. But I also see men coming forth. Today, we're talking about my part. My part is written by a man. So I have to give Karan full credit for portraying Naina as flawed, unapologetic, wrong, and everything else that could go wrong. So I have to give credit to all the men who've been able to do that."

Sharing about how time has come back again where female characters are written in a better way, the Hate Story 2 actor said, "Actually, they haven't started doing that today. You can go back to the 1950s and find women's parts written exactly as they are today. In the midst, we lost a bit of track. So I feel like it's all coming back. We're talking about it more, which is why we know more about it. There was no such conversation then about these issues. So, all in all, I think it's a great time. OTT is a great space and, in my opinion, a platter of opportunity."