Samarth Shandilya: Playing lead on TV gave me mass reach

Actor Samarth Shandilya feels getting into writing and direction early in his acting career has helped him learn the nuances of filmmaking better.

“When you go behind the camera you realise what this unique craft is all about. Also, after writing screenplay and dialogues for a film like Victor, along with producing my first short film Lappad, I have understood how taxing the job of a film maker is. For my short films, I have played multiple roles on the sets including that of a spot boy. In fact, now I know keeping things within a budget is a tough job. That’s how you learn and comprehend the process and see that it gets a timely release,” says Shandilya.

On how it all started, the multi-tasking actor says, “During the lockdown, as shootings were on hold, I started looking beyond acting and that’s how writing happened. It was then that I wrote my first series Who’s Your Daddy 2 followed by my foray into directing music videos.”

Shandilya has been working across mediums and feels actors should not be tied down to one platform. “The times are changing; we are not living in the era where artistes were tagged to a certain medium. It’s a creative field, you never know what might click for you – it can be a TV show or even a short film for that matter. Playing lead in Perfect Pati on a small screen gave that mass reach and then the web helped me reach the younger audience,” says the Triple X and Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya actor.

Recently seen in OTT series Rana Naidu, Shandilya is happy with the positive reviews coming his way. “From day one I knew that the show would be a game changer for me. It gave me the opportunity where I got to play a character called Toofan that will surely stay with me for long. Now, I am waiting for my next production, a short film Medic to release along with that my directorial videos with Juggy D and Jay Sean are wrapped. Writing for OTT is keeping me engaged till shooting for another web series starts,” concludes Shandilya.