It is the best time for debutant Medha Shankr, who played the character of Shraddha, Manoj’s (Vikrant Massey) love interest in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail. She is not only earning praises for her performance but even her social media followers have soared high instantly, from 16K to 1.4M. She says, “It’s overwhelming and I feel grateful. When we were making the film, we were proud of what we had made. We knew that the honesty we put into the film would resonate with people, but the kind of response it got was unprecedented.”
The actor tells us that she is the kind of actor who has never focused on her social media profiles ever before. “Before I was locked in for the film, I had 16K followers because I never cared about Instagram and didn’t put content regularly. After the OTT release, it grew massively and it’s more than a million now, I am slowly realising the power of social media,” says the 33-year-old, adding, “Now I am understanding that you are considered a star not only because you are a great actor but also because your social media blew up. As an actor, this has become important now. Most importantly, great opportunities will come my way because the film did well and my performance is being appreciated as well. But, considering social media, we have to agree that it pays a lot, it is a great way to make money on the side. It will open up a lot of brand collaboration for me.”
Despite not fitting the traditional criteria of a blockbuster, the film found success in theaters and witnessed a great response after releasing it digitally. Ask her why the film did better on streaming as compared to theatres and she responds, “Even though this film doesn’t fit the criteria of a theatrical release – commercial, big star, and masala, despite that the film did really good business in the theatres because it was such a good film. It sets a precedent that if you make a really good film and it doesn’t fit the criteria of a typical box office film, it will fly.”
“Having said that, when it came on OTT, the response absolutely blew apart. The viewership was massive because many people didn’t go to the theatres to watch it. OTT has its perks and strengths in terms of viewership,” she further adds.
However, as the popularity surges, there’s a concern about being stereotyped for her innocent and soft girl image as shown in the film. Addressing this, she affirms, “I understand the fact that people might always remember me with that character. But as an actor, I want to challenge myself and play different roles, I know how to push my boundaries. If people stereotype me, I know whenever I do different roles, it will sort of break that.”
