5 OTT Superstars Of 2021

 The days  of cine-superstars lording over audiences’ attention is over. The OTT platform ,a compulsion rather than  a preference in 2020 to begin with, has now come to stay.  As  Sunny Leone told me , people have become habituated to watch their cinematic content  at home.Writer-filmmaker Rumi Jaffrey puts it  even better. “When  you have  tea without sugar you  find  the tea bitter  for  the first few days. Then  after the 15^th day you become so used to it you don’t want to go  back to  chai with shakkar.The same happened with the OTT platform. Audiences have now acquired a different  taste.”  Digital domain has  its own  star system  now. Here are the ones getting the best roles and  remuneration , who will shine in 2021.

1.     Amit Sadh: Cinema just didn’t give him the space  and attention he deserved. In 2020 he made a  terrific  impact in Breathe 2  where he  played the troubled  out-of-control cop with remarkable restrain. Digital audiences , now exposed to discreet  acting, have zeroed in on Amit’s ability to say more by saying less.Avrodh  The Siege  Within, further consolidated  his position in 2020 as  a solid reliable  digital  star whom the  ladies like to fantasize  about. He is now one of the most in-demand OTT stars. In 2021 he will open innings with a  war bio-pic Zid  followed  by Breathe 3 for which he’s training in  Dubai as you read this.Amit  busier than  many of the so-called superstars  from Bollywood.

2.     Jitendra  Kumar: He is one of  the original products  of  the  digital platform, having made a big impact with  Permanent  Roommates and Kota Factory. In 2020  Jitendra scored big with Panchayat a  series celebrating rural India’s  stuttering awakening, just what Jitendra needed. He’s now being offered  the kind of money he had  never seen before.

3.     Kunnal Khemmu:  After being given a raw deal  for years, Kunnal Khemmu has finally found his fair  share of fame  in  the digital domain. In 2020 he had two  knock-out hits on OTT with  the gruesome  crime thriller  Abhay 2  and  the  airy  amusing  Lootcase. They now want him  for  many big web series including the next season of Abhay . There are  throwing  tempting  offers at  Kunnal  to   team up with his wife Soha Ali Khan on the OTT, which Kunnal is considering. Perhaps  brother-in-law Saif Ali Khan who was the first major Bollywood star transit into OTT, can help Kunnal make  up his mind.

4.     Neena  Gupta: Hotly in demand on the digital  domain  after the  unexpected success of Panchayat  and Masaba Masaba where she  played her own daughter’s mother. All of a sudden  Neena  is being seen as  the  only major female superstar on   the OTT platform. “I’ve never looked at the offers as  digital  or  non-digital, television or  cinema. To me a role is  a role,whether  it’s theatre,cinema or  the mobile  phone,” says Neena. Watch  out for her powerhouse performance  at home in  2021.

5.     Tanuj  Virwani: Huge  success  came his way  with Inside Edge and its sequel . In 2020 Tanuj was seen in  the  moderately well-received Code M. Virwani has been  using all  of  2020 to zero in on the projects that he  will take on in 2021.  It’s  a  lineup that  takes him impressively away from what his  star-mother Rati Agnihotri did in her  heydays. “Times have changed, and in 2020, so have tastes. What worked  on the large screen  no longer works at home. Entertainment has  acquired a new meaning and  relevance now.I am doing serials that are  pathbreakers  but at the same  time  they are solid entertainers. They have to be. Otherwise the  man watching you  on his phone while commuting  or the lady  looking at your series while the daal gets prepared in the pressure cooker ,will find something else  to see.”