Barun Sobti on leaving behind a successful TV career for OTT: ‘I had not worked for a while, so the idea was to switch’

Barun Sobti on leaving a successful career in TV for OTT. (Photo: Barun Sobti/Instagram)

Actor Barun Sobtiwas quite the heartthrob of Indian television until 2017. With a popular show like Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon, he was certainly in the A-league of actors on the small screen, and then came a phase, where the actor decided to switch gears professionally.

He did OTT shows in an era when not many knew of the medium’s existence. It was a huge risk, but Barun reaped the benefits later. His latest show Rakshak India’s Brave Chapter 2, which is streaming on Amazon MiniTV, too has gotten a great response. Recently, the ace actor sat down for a heartfelt conversation with Indianexpress.com revisiting his professional choices. Barun surely looks at life with a glass-full approach and counts everything as a blessing.

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Talking about switching from romantic roles to more intense ones, Barun Sobti shared, “Your words don’t manifest into your future. There is a certain understanding I have of my skill set, but nobody is seeing that being delivered until someone takes a risk on you, and you start getting aligned with the subconscious of the industry.

You say no to a million things, so there are only twenty things left for you to do. So those 20 things become the option then. Another thing that you do subconsciously is that you are aligning yourself basically with the universe. You send out messages about the kind of stuff you want to do and you will go out of the way if you have to, even sit back home for half a decade but do a certain kind of work. That message goes out loud and clear as long as you are worth it.”

Barun left behind a thriving TV career to enter the OTT space when it was at a nascent stage in India. The actor said he was inspired by the work done in the West and was “secretly hoping that the same thing would happen in India as well.”