Manjari Fadnnis says, 'Social media invasion has become too much.'

Manjari Fadnnis was recently seen in a web series Yeh Dooriyan opposite Paresh Pahuja. It is about a married couple, Vikram and Aisha, who find themselves in a long-distance relationship due to the unexpected lockdown. It is helmed by Souvik Gupta and is streaming on HumaraMovie. The Free Press Journal caught up with the actress for an exclusive chat. Excerpts:

How did lockdown treat you?

I saw a lot of friends who left the city and went back to their hometowns due to the pandemic, but God was very kind to me, and I am just grateful. Fortunately, Barot House released before the lockdown was announced and the film kind of changed a lot of things for me in my career. It has also changed the perception of people in the industry in a good way. I signed several projects after Barot House, so luckily, I had those signing amounts.

The pandemic has drastically changed the narratives of storytelling because of the OTT boom. Your thoughts?

Yeh Dooriyan was shot in a very interesting way. I am really a technologically challenged person. Funnily, I don’t explore my phone much, so I didn’t even know that it can shoot it in 4K. When Yeh Dooriyan was offered to me, I got to learn so many technical things, and now I can record my self-tests on camera myself. I am also not very active on Instagram. People around me keep pestering me to put something or the other. I am an actor, and I am supposed to act.

Does social media invasion bother you?

Yes, in a way, it has become too much. I am not that kind of a person. I always go by my instincts and go in a direction wherever I want to go in life. I may be an influencer by default, but that’s not what I am supposed to do.

Have you ever experienced a long-distance relationship?

I am capable of it. When I am in love, I am completely into that person, distance doesn’t matter to me, but it is difficult to deal with for sure. I want to be with that person physically, I want to cuddle, but I can totally manage.

Do you feel there’s also a lot of clutter on OTT due to overproduction?

There are times when I am just scrolling for half an hour but decide not to watch anything. As an actor, I don’t have any particular formula for choosing my scripts on OTT. It is just that I want to work with good directors, and this is my foremost choice in any project that I explore. Over the last few years, I realised that the director is the captain of the ship. They will present the film according to their vision.

How do you take your failures?

If you see my filmography, I have had more failures than successes, but the one thing which kept me happy and going is that I was always working. I never came to the industry with the thought of becoming a popular and rich film star. I always believed that it is just the byproduct of what I do. I love performing arts, and the stage is the happiest place for me.