Aditi Rao Hydari on the blockbuster shows Jubilee and Taj: “At first, I said, ‘big screen only,’ but now we’ve seen the power of OTT.”

Aditi Rao Hydari, an actress, discusses the power of OTT and what she has learned from working on the platform. Aditi Rao Hydari is basking in the success of not one but two web shows back-to-back, and her performance in both Jubilee and Taj: Divided by Blood has been garnering rave reviews. However, the actor admits that there was a time when she wanted her project to head to the big screen only, and she’s only glad she was proved wrong by the wide reaching power of the web. “All of my contemporaries, even the people who are starting out now, don’t think about the medium now. Because we have seen the power of OTT platforms,” says Hydari, who was exposed to the digital world in 2020 when Sufiyum Sujatayum became the first Malayalam film that opted for a direct-to-OTT route. The 36-year-old, who was later seen in web anthology, Ajeeb Daastaans, continues, “I remember when my first Malayalam film, which was made for the theatres, went to an OTT platform because there was a lockdown. I was really upset but I saw the power of what happened after the film was released. Everything went viral overnight and in Malayalam, it’s not so easy for them to accept somebody from the outside. I was blown away by it and decided that I will never complain again.” She admits that it has been a learning curve for her. “Even I have learned about it. At the beginning, even I said ‘No, no big screen only’. Because there is magic on the big screen. But then you realise that it is really the magic of making people believe your story, sitting in their hearts and staying with them,” says Hydari. Talking about her latest outing Jubilee, the actor asserts that it is that story that connects with a person, adding, “Now, whether your grandmother tells you a good story, or your mother… It is about a good story.” The Padmaavat actor has spent over 17 years in the film industry, and she has realised that her sensitivity and vulnerability has turned out to be her biggest strength. “At the beginning, so many people used to tell me ‘you are too soft. Grow thick skin’. But my sensitivity and vulnerability is possibly my biggest strength because I’m unafraid to show what I feel to people,” she says. Explaining her thought process, the actor, who is busy prepping for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi, shares, “If I put all my energy in trying to change the core of me, then how will I be? How will I put my energy into the art? It is about owning who you are.”