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Mohit Malik, who made his Bollywood debut this year with Azaad, sheds light on the harsh reality of TV actors struggling to find work in films. Read his exclusive interview below! Published: April 3, 2025 5:03 PM IST By is renowned for his compelling performances in various television shows. The actor embarked on his acting career with the TV show on Star Plus.
Later, he garnered recognition for his portrayal of ‘Samrat Singh Rathore’ in the TV serial In addition to this, the actor also ventured into the OTT space and is currently gearing for the release of the second season of on Sony LIV. Moreover, Mohit also made his Bollywood debut this year in Abhishek Kapoor’s . This film stars Ajay Devgn, Diana Penty and marks the acting debuts of Raveena Tandon’s daughter Rasha Thadani and Ajay Devgn’s nephew Aaman Devgan.
Mohit, who is a popular face in the television industry, said that the makers of Azaad, including director Abhishek Kapoor never knew who he was, until he sent his audition tape. He underwent three rounds of auditions in order to grab his first film. While speaking to , Mohit shared, “Those people don’t know, I mean Gattu (Abhishek Kapoor) sir never saw my work.
He saw my audition tape and that’s how he liked it and he wanted to meet me and then I met him and then he narrated it to me and then another look test, another audition. You know I had to go down on three rounds of audition with him to finally back the role.” Mohit said that its not easy for television actors to get noticed and find work in Bollywood.
Referring to Shah Rukh Khan’s case, he said that there was a time when TV actors were recognised easily by superstars or filmmakers. But now, that doesn’t happen anymore. He expressed, “See, television is not the same now, ki ab vo Shah Rukh Khan aake screen pe kaam kar raha hai, and usko Hema Malini aake dekhlegi, vo time gaya ab, ab nahi hai vo time, ki apko TV pe aake koi dekhlega.
Ab vo hai ki aap kitna apni behtari keliye as an actor, aap kitna aacha kaam karte ho vahi hai, aur ab jo log TV dekhte hai vo OTT dekhte hai, and that’s what changed my mindset that I should be doing this kind of work on OTT that I am doing on television, taki log mujhe dekhe, and mujhe usse kaam mile.” (See, television is not the same anymore. It’s not like Shah Rukh Khan will appear on-screen, and Hema Malini will notice him.
That era is gone. No one is just watching you on TV and offering work. It all depends on how much you improve yourself as an actor and how well you perform.
Nowadays, the same audience that used to watch TV is now watching OTT. And that’s what changed my mindset- I realised that I should be doing the same kind of work on OTT that I am doing on TV, so that people notice me and I get more opportunities.” In 2016-2017, Mohit decided to switch and find work on other mediums, when he realised that his work was not being noticed on television.
He added, “That’s the decision I took in 2016-2017, that I want to explore more mediums, because main vo kar raha tha, itni time se itni mehnat itna internal kaam TV pe bhi kar raha hun, telecast hota hai aur nikal jata hai, itni mehnat ki, of course, family dekhti hai, log dekhte hai, but the people I want to work with, they are not watching it.” (I made this decision in 2016-17 to explore other mediums. I had been putting a lot of effort, working extensively on my craft, but just one episode aired and it’s gone.
Despite all the hard work, and even though my family and audience watched it, the people I truly wanted to work with weren’t watching.” Meanwhile, Mohit Malik will be next seen, reprising the role of ‘Guru Deol’ in The first season of Chamak garnered a lot of love from the audience and viewers are eagerly waiting for the second installment of the show. The music thriller series is all set to release on Sony LIV, on April 4, featuring Paramvir Cheema, Isha Talwar in the lead roles along with Manoj Pahwa, Mohit Malik, Mukesh Chhabra, Dhanveer Singh, Prince Kanwaljit Singh, Suvinder Pal, and Akasa Singh in important roles.
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