'I was afraid I might not hold the audience's attention'

Shraddha Srinath, who along with director Rajesh M Selva, speak about their recently released Netflix series, The Game, the complications of long-format storytelling, the root and effects of online bullying, and more

- PRASHANTH VALLAVAN

THE Game is not just Netflix’s first original Tamil web series. It also marks Shraddha Srinath’s foray into long-format storytelling. The actor says she was ready to do a web series for quite some time, but she was looking for the right project to dive into. Explaining the trace amounts of trepidation that held her back for afew years, Shraddha says, “If you have eight episodes to perform, you have time to enjoy the nuances of the character, which is great for an actor. But then, you are also giving the audience eight episodes to critique you.”

The actor is also conscious of the challenges of holding the audience’s attention at a time of severe attention deficiency. Taking herself as an example, Shraddha says, “I’m very poor at watching shows online. Even if my phone wasn’t buzzing, I would keep checking it for some reason. Then there are shows where you don’t do that. And that is the mark of a well-made show. People have seen me ina feature film format, but I was afraid if I would be able to hold people’s attention in a web series.”