PJAEE, 17 (6) (2020)

BOLLYWOOD ACTORS AND WEB SERIES A STUDY ON THE TREND

OF BOLLYWOOD ACTORS APPEARING IN WEB SERIES

Mandeep Choursia
Assistant Professor, University Institute of Media Studies, Chandigarh University Mohali, Punjab,
India
e-mail: mandeep.uims@cumail.in

ABSTRACT
Bollywood is the term given to Hindi Cinema. It is a formal name for the Indian film industry
and every artist from this field like actors, singers, cinematographers, directors, producers,
fashion designers are a part of it. Till now Bollywood has given many prominent faces to the
audience but now the emergence of the digital platform, the popularity of web series is
increasing with every passing year and thus the choice of popular actors too. They are trying
their skills in online series as it is getting more recognition. The reason for the popularity is
the youth who are spending more time on the internet. From last few years, many prominent
actors became part of various web series on different online portals. In this study close
observation is done on 2019 web series and popular Indian film actors who got portrayed in
diverse characters. Also, critical analysis is done on the roles they are playing in web series.
Key Words: Bollywood, Web Series, Actors, Digital, Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video
I. INTRODUCTION
Bollywood is the industry which provides entertainment to the Indian
audience. Every year several films release under this banner. People happily
pay money to watch these movies as they want to spend their leisure time
with entertainment. Indian cinema has a long history and it started way back
in 1913 when the first Indian feature film was made by Dadasaheb Phalke,
the silent one 'Raja Harishchandra'. After that, there was no looking back.
The Indian film industry is producing the largest number of films in the
world every year at present and Bollywood is the epicentre for this
achievement.
Though the term 'Bollywood' is derived from the name 'Bombay', which is
now known as Mumbai and 'Hollywood' is the term used for American
Cinema, but it welcomes all the artists from different parts of the country
and also from around the world to be part of it in any form. There are many
actors and actresses who got success due to their talent, hard work and
platform offered by the Bollywood industry. Few superstars of the film
industry are Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan,
Shahrukh Khan, Madhubala, Nargis, Hema Malini, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit,
Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone and many more. They all are legends of
their era. The big silver screen made them a well-known name to every
house in India. Their fans are quite difficult to count in numbers as their fan
following is endless. This shows the power of Bollywood which has given
name, fame and money to many of its artists. Bollywood stands on top of

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the entertainment sector for more than 100 years but nothing remains
constant. To give competition to Bollywood another platform came
gradually in India but now it's showing its worth. This platform not only
competing with the silver screen but also with other mediums like
television, radio and print. This new sector is popularly known as Digital
Media.
Digital media changed the mindset of viewers or its consumers. Now folks
are not taking out their time according to timings of Television, radio or
films. On the contrast, they watch shows or films when they are free. All
thanks to online platforms and internet which gave flexibility to its users.
Now due to the changing trend and choice of people especially youth, the
concept of providing video content is also changing. Just like in many
foreign countries consumers are shifting from silver screens or television to
OTT like Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime, ALT Balaji, Zee 5 or others,
where they can watch content according to their availability. This is the
reason concept of Web series is introduced in India too in which few
numbers of the episode of a particular show is made and then it's released
on any online portal. A lot of youth in our country is busy with their life as
competition is increasing day by day so in this busy lifestyle availability of
a platform on which they could see content according to their choice and
time is a wonderful option for them. Spending time and money in cinema
halls for a movie started changing slightly. So now, actors from the film
industry are also showing their interest for working in web series as they
know this fact very well that this platform could increase their fan
following as it has wide reach in comparison to Big Screen. Even directors
and producers know this fact and thus they are considering Bollywood stars
to play characters in their web series so that their existing followers engage
with their web series too.
In this study concept of casting Bollywood stars in various web series on
different online portals is analysed by taking experienced actors of the film
industry who appeared in Web series in 2019. The parameter for the
selection of actors is their experience. Actors who have more than 10 years
of experience in Bollywood are analysed in this study.
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Alpana (2019), explains in this research paper "Analysis of Product
Placement in Web Series and its Influence on Consumer Buying
Behaviour" says that most of the youth between the age group of 20 to 35
spends more time in watching episodes of a series in comparison to other
age groups. The reason behind this is that as most of the people in this age
group are students or working professionals who spend more time on
smartphones while travelling and at that time they prefer to watch any
series.
Kakkar A. And Naya K. in their study "The Netflix Phenomenon in
India: A qualitative enquiry into the urban Indian Youth's engagement
with Netflix" explains that with the improved technology and subtitles
appearing in the episodes promoting the practice of viewing content online

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as viewers have options like post-play, playback and mobile viewing or

watching an entire season in a row.
Yashwant (2019) in his study "Analysis of various effects of web series
streaming online on the internet on Indian youth" explains that majority
of Indian youth (50%) according to study spend 3-6 hours daily watching
web series, 40% of youth spend 1 to 2 hours and 10% exclusively spends 7-
10 hours on OTT platforms which includes Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video,
Youtube, Alt Balaji, Eros, Cheers, Hot star etc. This study also tells the
taste of the youth. It explains that 70% of youngsters are watching online
content which includes funny and bad words or language, violence or
intimate scenes. 20% watch for lavish lifestyle and only 5% for other
reasons.
Chauhan K. (2019) in her article 'Bollywood actors hit their stride in
web series' on Indian Television website quotes that film actors found a
new cosy space as they are being part of web series on the digital platform.
It was an experiment with Bollywood actors that was started in around 2017
and it's still going well. Platforms like Netflix, Amazon's prime video,
Voot, ALT Balaji and Viu featured actors like Rana Daggubati in Social,
Rajkumar Rao in Bose: Dead/ Alive, R Madhavan and Amit Kaushik Shah
in Breathe and many more in various web series.
John Lynch (2018), in an article on Business Insider website, says that
"Sacred Games" is Netflix's first original release in a campaign to reach
more than 1 billion viewers in India as it is one of the largest potential
international markets for the streaming services
Objectives:
➢ To find out prominent actors who acted in web series in 2019
➢ To analyse the characters played by various popular actors in 2019
web series
➢ To find out which online video streaming portal released maximum
web series that includes Bollywood actors.
III. METHODOLOGY
Content analysis and personal observation have been done for this study.
Many web series, online streaming portal and Bollywood actors are closely
observed and focused on the study.
IV. DATA ANALYSIS
1. Manoj Bajpayee
He is 50 years talented actor in the Indian film industry who has around 26
years of experience. He received many awards for his acting skills like two
National awards, four Filmfare awards and also Padma Shri in 2019. Mr
Bajpayee appeared in 2019 web series 'The Family Man' and played the
character of 'Srikant Tiwari' a man working for his country in a national
investigation agency against terrorism. The struggle of a family man is
described in this series who tries to balance his time towards his family and
duty. This series released on Amazon prime and got a good response from

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its viewers. Manoj Bajpayee is a well known veteran actor and he debuted
on the digital platform with this series and also got appreciated.
2. Nawazuddin Siddique
45 years actors with 21 years of experience have some extraordinary acting
talent within him. Based on his wonderful skills he became one of the
prominent faces of Bollywood after a lot of struggle. Although the struggle
was worth as he got well recognition not only on the national level but also
at international level. All credit goes to his web series 'Sacred Games'
where he is playing a lead role as 'Ganesh Gaitonde'. This series is the first
original Indian web series on Netflix which was released in June 2018 and
after this, a lot of other Indian series got space on Netflix. In 2019 season 2
of Sacred Games also got appreciated by its viewers. Nawazuddin Siddique
who already established himself as one of the most talented actors in
bollywood has earned more fan following with this series. Even his
dialogues from series such as "Kabhi Kabhi lagta hai ki apun hi bhagwaan
hain" which means "Sometimes I do feel that I am the God" got a lot of
popularity among the audience. All in all, he has won the hearts of his fans
with this series. The other accomplishment of Siddique is that he won a lot
of awards at the national and international level like Cannes Film Festival,
Berlin Film Festival, Busan Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Asia
Pacific Screen Awards, Breakthrough Talent at the 2012 GQ Men of the
Year Award and many more.
3. Saif Ali Khan
This man started his career 28 years ago with Hindi movie Parampara. He
also won an award for Filmfare Best Male Debut. His initial years in
Bollywood gave him some recognition but not stardom since his movies
were not doing well on box office. But after struggling phase, he got well
acclaimed for his role played in crime drama Omkara and received
Filmfare Award for Best Villain in 2006. Soon after that, he reached to his
golden era as he gave few of the biggest hits in their respective years like
Race, Love Aaj Kal, Cocktail and Race 2.
2018 approached to him with a debut on the digital platform with the
Netflix series 'Sacred Games' where he is playing the role of a policeman
who wants to save his city from terrorist attack. He is one of the leads in
this series. His role was well praised by critics. His role also continued in
season 2 of Sacred Games that was released in 2019. This platform of web
series given him a chance to prove that he even can play challenging roles
like the character of 'Sartaj Singh' a Sikh cop who is shown as a normal
human being, not like some superhero generally shown in many movies
where a cop can fight anywhere with anyone. On the contrary, this
character is much close to reality where even policeman could be beaten if
he got stuck in any dangerous situation.
4.Pankaj Tripathi
Another great actor from Bollywood who has 16 years of experience till
present and doing extraordinary well in Bollywood by playing a variety of

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characters in movies like Stree, Newton, Gangs of Wasseypur, Lukka

Chuppi, Fukrey and many more for whom he is becoming eye-catcher for
viewers. He also appeared in many web series like in Mirzapur on
Amazon's Prime Video in 2018 and won iReel best actor Award for it. Then
in 2019, he appeared in Sacred Games 2 on Netflix, where he is acting as
Godman and next to his another popular series of 2019 that is Criminal
Justice on Hotstar, he is playing a character of Madhav Mishra, a lawyer
who is trying to unfold a murder mystery to seek justice for his client. He is
proving his potential to do variety and challenging characters in the Indian
film industry and now on the digital platform too. He is applauded by critics
for his outstanding roles in various projects and also got awards like
News18 REEL Movie Awards for Best Supporting, Screen Award for Best
Supporting Actor, Zee Cine Award for Best Dialogue during his journey in
Bollywood.
5. Arjun Rampal
He is a multitalented actor who has 19 years of experience in the industry.
He has received several awards including the National Film Award for Best
Supporting Actor and the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his
performance in Rock On. He appeared in the Zee5 series 'The Final Call'
and Arjun Rampal is playing the role of 'Captain Karan Sachdev' in the
series who is disturbed and because of that many lives in flight gets in risk.
He played his character perfectly. The story is very intense of the series and
so the role played by him.
6. Emraan Hashmi
Emraan Hashmi doesn't need any introduction in India as he is well popular
out there with 17 years of experience in Bollywood. But now he is getting
well recognised in other countries also because of his Web series debut on
Netflix with 'Bard of Blood'. It is a thriller with a combination of action and
drama. This series is based on the novel of the same name written by Bilal
Siddiqi. This series gave him well-deserved fame; he is portraying Kabir
Anand a RAW Agent who can go to any extent for his country. In the
mission of saving four Indian spies that are captured in Balochistan, Kabir
is risking his life. This role proved his capability of doing justice to any
given character.
7. Dia Mirza
This Diva has 21 years of journey in Bollywood and still going well and
earning applause from fans and critics both for her acting skills. The latest
example to prove this is her 2019 series 'Kaafir' on Zee5 for which she also
won awards like Best Actor OTT female (critics) at Gold Awards, Best
actor female (critics) at IWM digital awards and Dadasaheb Phalke Award,
2020 (Best Actress). Before 'Kaafir' she has many other awards in her kitty.
Dia Mirza is playing the character of a Pakistani girl who is stuck in India
under some circumstances and then the whole story is revolving around her
struggle to prove that she is not a terrorist or Pakistani spy. She gave a

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power pack performance and that is the reason she got so much appreciated,
that she received three awards in a row for Kaafir.w
8. Vivek Oberoi
He has 18 years of experience in Bollywood and done a quite number of
films. Even won awards like Filmfare award for best male debut and best
supporting role for his first movie Company. After that, his movies didn't
do well at box office. He was fading from Indian film industry when a web
series 'Inside Edge' gave him recognition again, it was released on Amazon
Prime in 2017. After the success of the first season, the second season
released in December 2019 worldwide. Critics appreciated Vivek Oberoi
hard work and he won the hearts of viewers too. He is playing the character
as Vikrant Dhawan who is a businessman who is involved in betting too in
cricket. He is playing the villain of the show and his role is quite
convincing.
9. Vikrant Massey
He has 16 years of experience in the Indian film industry. He appeared in
many Bollywood movies as well as Indian television shows like Balika
Vadhu, Lootera, Dil Dhadakne Do, Half Girlfriend and recent one
Chhapaak. He won awards like Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival for Best
Actor. On the digital platform, his career is quite blooming well. There are
several series in his kitty like Rise on Youtube, Mirzapur and Made in
Heaven on Amazon Prime, Broken But Beautiful on ALTBalaji, Criminal
Justice on Hotstar.
In 2019 he placed the role of a cab driver named as Aditya who is framed in
charges of murder and the story revolves around the murder mystery. He
portrayed the role very well who got into jail for years without any crime
and how he survived there. He got good reviews for his role in the series.
10. Kalki Koechlin
Kalki is an actress appreciated by critics for many of her performance on
the big screen since around 12 years. She is well known for her roles in Dev
D, Margarita with a Straw, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Yeh Jawaani Hai
Deewani and many more. She even got Filmfare Award for Best
Supporting Actress for her first movie Dev D and National Film Award –
Special Jury Award in 2015. She has even done many series like Kalki's
Great Escape, Shockers, Smoke. But in 2019 she marked her existence on
the digital platform with 'Made in Heaven', 'Sacred Games 2' and 'Bhram'.
Made in Heaven is a famous series on Amazon Prime in which she is
playing the role of Faiza Naqvi who is involved in a romantic relationship
with her best friend's husband. She adopted this character beautifully and
has done complete justice with this role. Another series on Netflix the
popular Sacred Games 2 where she is one of the leads, she is playing the
role of Batya Abelman who is a follower of Khanna Guruji played Pankaj
Tripathi. She is playing a negative character in series and she did it very
well. Her another series in this year is 'Bhram' on Zee 5 which is a horror

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thriller. She is playing a lead role in this series too as Alisha Khanna who is
observing some paranormal activities at her place but other people do not
believe her. She again nailed the character in the series and has done full
justice with her role.
V. MAJOR FINDINGS
➢ Celebrities gain the attention of the audience as they already won many
awards and that's why they are being preferred in various Web series.
➢ Years of experience in Indian film industry engage existing viewers for
the web series as fans are already familiar with them.
➢ In 2019 more Bollywood stars appeared in web series of Netflix in
comparison to other OTT.
➢ On Netflix also 'Sacred Games' series is the one included maximum
number of Bollywood stars like Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui,
Radhika Apte, Pankaj Tripathi, Kalki Koechlin
➢ Apart from them Manoj Bajpayee, Huma Qureshi, Emraan Hashmi,
Dia Mirza, Vivek Oberoi, Vikrant Massey were also starred in various web
series on other OTT like Hotstar, Amazon's Prime Video, Zee 5 and ALT
Balaji.

VI. CONCLUSION
Bollywood actors who have years of experience in the industry, they
already have earned name and fame for themselves. Casting these actors
means a kind of less risk of getting a particular web series flop. Every
producer or director keeps this thing in mind while making any video
content that it must get viewership also. This is a business point of view but
very much needed when it comes to big projects. If there is any series
which they want to release on some big platform, they want to ensure that
their project must become a big hit and for this, they are using stardom of
Bollywood stars. On the flip side, stars are also willing to be part of this
new concept because they also knew this very well that the trend of
watching content by viewers is changing and this is the platform where they
can also increase their popularity because of the wide reach of this platform.
This is a chance for them after getting famous in their nation as well as to
get popular in other countries too. Moreover, for few stars web series are
providing some challenging roles which these stars are willing to do as an
artist. In this study, only a few stars are analysed who has done web series
as the study is based on 2019 only. Apart from them, many other actors had
done great work in web series like Radhika Apte, Mithila Palkar, Maanvi
Gagroo, Rajeev Khandelwal, Sumeet Vyas, Priyanka Chopra, Arunoday
Singh, Arjun Rampal, Anupam Kher, Rajkummar Rao, R Madhavan, Juhi
Chawla , Nimrat Kaur, Karishma Kapoor, Dino Morea. This list will soon
be going to add a good number of names of other Bollywood actors also in
upcoming years as they are all set to get released in various online series.
Few names of these stars are Kajol, Bobby Deol, Jacqueline Fernandes,
Akshay Kumar and many more. The trend of actors choice is changing with
choices of viewers in India and so there is an entire shift is coming soon in
Bollywood where no longer first option of Bollywood stars will be only a

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big banner film, it could be some big banner web series also. For it let's
wait and watch.
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