“I Wanted To Follow My Passion And At This Age, I’m Happy To Achieve It” Krishna Kotian On Choosing Acting As A Career At 51

Krishna Kotian who is an actor and producer recently featured in the web series Criminal Justice season 3. Apart from this the actor has also done quite some projects like ‘Masaba Masaba’, ‘Rocket Boys’, ‘Avrodh2’, ‘Bestseller’ ‘Main Hero Bol Raha Hoon’, ‘Twisted 3’, ‘Bombers’, ‘Janani’, ‘The Chosen One’, among the few. The actor got in touch with us exclusively to talk about his work and being a part of showbiz.

Please tell us about your role in Criminal Justice season 3 and what will be seen in this season?

The series is based on criminal cases and Pankaj Tripathi plays one of the lawyers, my role in the series is that I’m a doctor and I’m the key witness in this case helping Pankaj Tripathi. I shot for only 5-6 days and everyone was very nice. The cast and crew all are good. I got to work with Pankaj Tripathi which was one of my bucket lists. I’m just happy to get the opportunity.

There has been a shift in OTT demand than the movies we watch in multiplex, what are your thoughts on that?

Yes, I believe so. See what happened was during the pandemic people were confined to homes and could not go to theatres. That is when people started consuming lots of content on OTT and it’s now become a habit. People were like this is also a great experience and also it has come to a point where our TV sets have become a substitute of big multiplexes. Now the movies are being released quickly, so people are not willing to spend money to go to multiplexes, until it’s an experiential film like RRR which I was a part of, or Pushpa, KGF, it’s a different thing. OTT has been able to give good content. You can watch it anywhere, at any time. It’s not geography specific. It’s something new.

Being a corporate professional, you shifted to being an actor. What made you shift from a job to being an actor?

I always wanted to be an actor since my college days. I tried about 20-25 years back. But this is not a sustainable thing; you know it’s always project-based. You get a project, complete it and search for another one. There is no constant flow of money to it. I had to run my home and that is why I took a job. Around 2019- 2020, I became independent and decided to do it as my to-do List and opened a production company. I was always close to the industry, close to what I wanted to do. Now I’m 51, I took the jump. You are in habit of getting paid monthly but it’s okay to be unstable at the time. I didn’t want to regret that I didn’t do it. It’s a good experience.

You have a movie Darbar with Rajnikant who is worshipped in the South, how was your experience working with him?

I loved working with him. It was my first film. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a scene with the superstar but yes I did it with Suniel Shetty. You see these people onscreen and working with them right now is so surreal. I did get to learn from him, Rajnikanth sir is very down-to-earth and humble. Suniel Shetty is also a very humble person. I’m in touch with him and speak frequently. Apart from being great actors, they are great human beings. I bagged a film with Abhishek Bachchan, Prabhas in Adipurush and Kartik Aryan, Vicky Kaushal. As a newcomer at this age this is a great thing. Lovely to be sharing the screen with such great entities. God has been kind.

Would you like to be a part of these reality shows like Khatron Ke Khiladi, Bigg Boss, and Jhalak Dikhla Jaa?

Yeah, why not? I’m open to TV also. I like to be part of the fear factor. I love dancing, it wouldnt hurt to be a part of a dance reality show.

Ganpati is around the corner. Tell us how do you celebrate?

Yes, we celebrate it. There is a Ganpati at my wife’s house plus I have some childhood memories. During my childhood, we used to go to chaupati. Speaking of Ganesh Chaturthi, I even made a short film on Ganpati. A two min film and Ganpati is the Vighnaharta, all the problems should be taken away.

Lastly, anything you want to say to fans about new projects?

Well after this series, I have some projects lined up, I have a couple of movies, one of them being Adipurush with Prabhas that will come in January. I just need my fans to continue supporting me and I promise to come up with more interesting projects in the future.