When you’re building a community, it can’t be transactional: Barkha Singh

Today, content consumption is becoming screen and device-agnostic, which has brought forth new opportunities and challenges. The M&E industry is poised for a future leap with new emerging technologies coming in, as consumer preferences keep changing.

The fifth edition of SCREENXX Summit and Awards 2023 witnessed an engaging fireside chat on ‘Leading the Streaming Way - The New Wave of Stardom’ between Siddhant Mazumdar, Head – Mediabrands Content Studio, India, and actor Barkha Singh.

Barkha Singh began her career in acting with the show, ‘Girls on Top’, on MTV. She then gradually shifted to the YouTube and OTT space. Siddhant Mazumdar commenced the session by asking Barkha how she effectively merged the two worlds of having a strong social media following and also being a prominent OTT star. “Do you consistently receive significant engagement when you release new content, and how do you tailor your promotional strategies to make the most of it? What is your secret ingredient for success?” he asked.

In her response, Barkha said, “I think having a strong community is a blessing. Obviously Rome wasn't built in a day, this kind of following happened over time. There’s no ingredient, but what I have always very consciously done is not put up a pretense. When times are tough, professionally or personally, I am just real with my audience. It makes them feel more connected to you because it humanises you in a way. To answer to the second part of your question, during releases great things happen because, as I said, this community not only encourages me, but also my co-actors and the overall project. So, it really gets a big boost.”

Continuing further, she said, “It is very important to continuously engage with your community, and not just when a release is happening. When you’re saying you’re building a community, it can’t be transactional. It can’t be me being only with my branded content, that’s not how it works, I also have to be engaged with my audiences when I’m in between releases, when there is no branded content.”

Turning the conversation towards criticism and feedback, Majumdar asked, “You’re clearly someone who receives a lot of love. Has there ever been a moment when you’ve received the exact opposite? How did you deal with it and how does that affect you as an actor?”

Barkha answered, “I think what’s important here is to have a clear demarcation between constructive criticism and the contrary, because sometimes criticism is important for one’s growth. You don’t want to have a bunch of ‘Yes Men’ around you. I think being able to differentiate between the two really goes a long way.  Apart from that, I think one shouldn’t be attached to anything – whether it is good feedback or bad feedback. Now don’t get me wrong, when I say not being attached, it doesn’t mean that you don’t listen to the feedback or don’t pay heed to it. Whether it is positive or negative feedback, at the end of the day you need to understand that you can’t really please everyone and that is the nature of our profession, and I think just knowing that is important.”

These are edited excerpts. For the complete conversation, please watch below: