Isha Talwar: I have been told that if my instagram followers do not increase, I will be out of work soon
Isha Talwar shares how influencers with huge following are being cast in big projects, while actors like her are trying to polish their craft
Actor Isha Talwar has lately become very acting on Instagram, posting multiple pictures on the app. However, it’s not her new found love or fascination for social media but a pressure, she tells us. “I have no choice anymore. I have been told that if my Instagram following does not increase, I will be rendered out of work. So it's absolutely under pressure. What started off as a platform to share memories, pictures and to connect, has turned into something else. ,” shares Isha.
Further sharing her experience, she tells us, “This is a bone of contention now. When they present an actor, or a performer, they have all the algorithm with them. That’s the reason you see all the influencers getting acting jobs today. We have people who are buying followers and blue tick, and getting cast in big projects. While we are sitting and trying to polish our craft and seeing what we can do in terms of performance and move out of mediocrity that’s going on.”
Talwar says it’s because the marketing has moved to digital so makers also look for someone who has good reach. “The kind of pressure there is to post teasers and trailers, it’s pretty crazy. When I started out 12 years ago, it was not like that. It was not about what I am doing in the digital space because that has nothing to do with the kind of actor I am. But today, it’s slowly boiling down to it,” says Talwar who has often called out the deteriorating quality of Hindi film content. She goes on, “They are interested in people jahaan unko reach milega. Trainer drop hone par kitne log dekhenge is their point of concern. The scene has become such that life is dependent on these likes and views.”
Talwar shows her disappointment and further tells us that she finds this culture problematic as it also affects her craft. “Putting myself out there on social media continuously is exhausting for me as a performer. Because if I am shooting a scene and my managers comes in the middle and tells me that we have to put up a post...or asks me if I can take a BTS in the middle of heavy, emotionally draining scene, I can’t do that. When you are on set, you are in the middle of trying to create a character and trying to be truthful to your work. That’s what I came here for. I did not come here to put pretty photographs of me on Instagram,” she ends
