Mrunal Thakur: We haven’t conquered Covid yet, I won’t risk my family, neither want audiences to risk

Life has barely started to get back to normal, with public places opening in a phased manner, including theatres. In a scenario when they were shut, a lot of makers had no option but to release their films on OTT platforms. Mrunal Thakur’s film, Toofan was one.

Ask if she’d be okay with her future lineup also heading the OTT way if Covid plays spoilsport again, and she says, “I’m an actor right now, and my first agenda is meri film bikti isiliye hai kyunki log dekhte hain. But their health is paramount and I’m not going to risk my family and neither do I want my audiences’ families to risk and go to theatres.”

Thakur makes it clear that it isn’t as if Covid has disappeared and it’s very much a part of our lives.

“We haven’t conquered it. We have vaccination and things are getting under control, but not completely. As an entertainer, a person who belongs to this industry, I believe first and foremost thing is that audience rahegi, unki health achhi rahegi, toh woh film dekhenge,” says the actor, who had also starred in the web anthology Ghost Stories (2020).

Though she admits that it doesn’t matter if her projects come on OTT platforms, the actor in her does crave the thrill of a theatrical release.

“What matters to me is reaching out to people are their convenience, they can play pause any time they want, they don’t have to spend more. Of course, as an actor, I want to attend red carpets and make that grand entry just like Deepika Padukone in Om Shanti Om (2007). But things are changing and I’ve to get used to that,” she explains.

And change she has brought about in her personal life too. Thakur, who turned 29 yesterday, otherwise doesn’t make plans for her birthday, but she did enjoy a getaway with her parents this time around.

“I’m not at all a birthday person, I get really embarrassed when someone wishes me. I end up saying, ‘Okay, thank you, good night’! The best thing about birthdays is I love to spend time with family, away from social networking sites, phone calls. I enjoy it when my mother makes special dishes for me, kheer, puran poli. But now, she’s more conscious about my diet than me. We haven’t stepped out as a family for two years, so this was the first birthday when I made some plans,” ends Thakur.