Hina Khan speaks on discrimination faced by TV actors; calls OTT ‘blessing in disguise’

Hina Khan turned heads with her impeccable fashion choices at the recently concluded Cannes International Film Festival 2022. She was at the film gala to unveil the poster of her upcoming Indo-English film Country of Blind. While the actress says that her schedule at the film festival was choc-a-bloc, she still enjoyed her time in the French Riviera.

Khan, who first attended the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in 2019 for her short film Lines, was distraught after not being invited to the Indian Pavilion Launch at Cannes this year. The event was attended by I&B Minister Anurag Thakur and celebs like Deepika Padukone, Tamannah Bhatia, Pooja Hegde, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui among others. However, Hina was missing from the attendees’ list.

The incident sparked a debate on the apparent discrimination faced in Bollywood by actors who make a transition from TV to films.

On whether she confronted the Indian authorities over not being invited to the India Pavilion launch, Hina said, “I have already expressed my views on the statement and I think that what I said was just about enough. So there was no need to make enquiries with anybody post what happened, and there is honestly nothing beyond what I said to now express.”

Admitting that OTT has only bridged the gap between TV and the mainstream Hindi film industry, Hina opines that the medium has brought in inclusivity by creating a platform where actors from both spaces work together as equals.

“I now feel that with the rise of OTT which has honestly been a boon to actors across all mediums, the lines are slowly coming closer in fact to bring actors together more than segregating them through mediums. Though yes there will still be labeling of mediums by many, with actors from all mediums working on OTT projects, it is definitely a blessing in disguise to blur these lines,” Hina concluded.