Karan Tacker on being labeled a TV actor: ‘You don’t call Vijay Varma an OTT actor’

Karan Tacker

Please tell me you are not scared of ghosts," is the first thing Karan Tacker was told before he was offered Bhay: The Gaurav Tiwari Story. The actor, "petrified" of supernatural elements, was about to turn the show down when the makers suggested that he read the material before making up his mind. "I was instantly hooked," laughs the actor.

The series also features Kalki Koechlin

The upcoming Amazon MX Player show is based on the true story of Gaurav Tiwari, a paranormal investigator, and his unusual death. Tacker says he found Tiwari fascinating. "Gaurav came from a well-to-do family in Delhi, left his father's business to pursue acting in Mumbai unsuccessfully and became a pilot eventually. It was when he had an incident [while flying] that his curiosity on the paranormal was piqued," he shares.

At a time when the industry is going through a slump, Tacker counts himself lucky to have projects lined up, including the web series Special Ops 2, and a film. The actor says his battle is of a different kind. "To date, I have to keep fighting to prove that I'm not just an actor from television and I have more to offer. It's sad that TV is looked down upon in the entertainment industry. If I want to do an article, my first insistence to my PR is, ‘Please make sure they don't write TV actor Karan Tacker'. You don't write ‘OTT actor Vijay Varma' or ‘OTT actor Jaideep Ahlawat'. I don't know why television actors get slotted so terribly. A casting director once told me, ‘I have 40 actors from film families that I need to cast. Where will I put a TV actor?'"