Exclusive! Actor Akshay Oberoi: Creative freedom being curtailed by censorship is frustrating

With constant chatter around the censorship of OTT content, during a recent interactive session with the media, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan firmly advocated for the censorship of OTT content, raising concerns about how abusive language, vulgarity, and nudity have increased on multiple OTT channels.

In a special conversation with OTTplay, actor Akshay Oberoi, who has starred in several web series like It's Not That Simple, The Test Case, Illegal, Flesh, and Inside Edge: Season 3, spoke about how he looks at the idea of censorship.

Sharing his opinion, Akshay told OTTplay, "I am talking on the matter as an artist and not as a policymaker. For an artist, it is almost frustrating to even think about the fact that creative freedom can be curtailed or that somebody can censor anything. The joy of working on content that releases on OTT platforms was the freedom that we were given, which was not the case with television and theatrical releases."

Citing an example from one of his earlier web series, the actor said, "I played Tajin in the series Flesh, which is about human trafficking. Such a character would not be shown in films because it would be censored. But we were able to show transgender characters and flesh-tread owners on OTT only because these shows are made for digital release. I believe that as actors, filmmakers, and overall storytellers, it is important to represent every section of society, and the truth can be ugly. If we start censoring it, we are censoring life and its expression. For an artist, that is frustrating."

Akshay added, "Look, as Indians, we are conservative people, but we are responsible with what we are putting out in films and different forms of art. So, I do not think that the majority of filmmakers will take advantage of the freedom we are granted." 

Akshay was last seen in the film Gaslight, which also stars Sara Ali Khan, Chitrangada Singh, and Vikrant Massey. It is available to stream on Disney+ Hotstar.