Swastika Mukherjee on playing Mala in Escaype Live: People were not convinced that I could do a negative role

Popular Bengali actress Swastika Mukherjee, who plays Mala in Disney+ Hotstar’s latest social thriller Escaype Live, is excited about her role that has grey shades to it. The show that dropped on May 20 delves into the horrific realities of social media.

In the web series, Swastika’s character Mala develops an unhealthy obsession with her employee after discovering her secret of moonlighting as a restaurant hostess and Fetish Girl – her online avatar on the Escaype Live app.

In her recent interview with a news agency, Swastika revealed that she was ‘taken aback’ when the show’s creator and director Siddharth Kumar Tewary approached her for the project. “It's because people have set notions in their minds when they want to cast somebody for a negative role. They think one has to look a certain way, have a certain kind of personality to play that,” she told PTI in an interview.

The role came to her in 2019 – way before Paatal Lok became immensely popular. “I was quite surprised when this came my way,” Swastika said. “For a long time, I was looking to play a negative part but people were not quite convinced that I could do it,” the actress was quoted as saying by the news agency.

Swastika is known for her powerful acting in Bengali films, like Tasher Ghawr, Shah Jahan Regency, Bhooter Bhobishyat, and a lot more. She further told the agency that she has portrayed characters that are rebellious in nature, questioning the norms of society, in women-centric films earlier but never so ‘flawed, complex and grey’. “My character on this show has a lot of grey shades, which I hadn’t played before either in Bengal or in the Hindi space,” she added.

Escaype Live, the Disney+ Hotstar web series explores the different journeys of six regular Indians as they struggle and compete to win, fame and fortune on a social media app which promises big money to the winning contestant.

Besides her film endeavours, Swastika has been working regularly on the OTT space both in Hindi and Bengali. She believes the digital space has opened up avenues for female actors to experiment. “Thanks to OTT, both the audience and the makers want to see women of all shades on screen,” she added.