Viraj Ghelani says moving from online sketches into films meant changing what he looks for in a performance: instead of reaching for the next joke, he has to understand the character and let the story unfold. In a Hindustan Times interview published 3 October 2026, he calls that adjustment “a lot of unlearning” and describes it as adapting to the different demands of each platform.
What Ghelani means by “unlearning” for films
Ghelani is a content creator and actor whose earlier character work includes sketches. He says the habits that help a short online performance hold attention do not automatically serve a feature film. “I had to do a lot of unlearning for this. Every platform has different mathematics that goes into it.”
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His point is not that one format is better than the other. It is that a performer has to respond to the form: what works in a brief sketch may not work across a film’s longer story. This is Ghelani’s account of his own transition, not a universal rule about creators or acting.
How he contrasts Instagram and film acting
Ghelani describes Instagram as a format where a performer needs to capture attention quickly, while a film gives a character more time to build an audience’s interest. He puts the contrast this way: “Instagram’s retention rate of an audience is one second. So you have to grab them in that one second. Whereas in a film, you have two hours. You can’t put comedy everywhere. It’s the character that grows on the audience with time. That arc of growth doesn’t happen digitally.”
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The one-second and two-hour figures are part of Ghelani’s comparison; the interview does not establish them as independently measured platform analytics or as universal figures for Instagram and film. The useful distinction in his explanation is about pacing: a sketch may depend on an immediate hook, while a film can develop a character across a longer arc.
From the next laugh to the character’s story
Ghelani says that creating short-form comedy can make a performer think continually about the next laugh. For a film role, he tries to shift attention from that immediate payoff to what the character and story require: “As a content creator, you are always thinking, ‘What is the next joke? What is the next thing that will make people laugh?’ But in films, you have to understand the character and the story. You have to let the character breathe and grow.”
That approach means comedy need not be present in every moment. A character’s quieter or less overtly funny beats can matter because they help the audience understand who the character is as the story progresses.
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Why language mattered on Mitrata
Ghelani says he was recently seen in the Gujarati film Mitrata, which the interview describes as revolving around the friendship of three young men. He connects making his character believable with noticing how Gujarati differs by place, saying: “The Gujarati spoken in Mumbai is very broken, very Maharashtrian Gujarati. Gujarat’s Gujarati is different.”
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His example shows how his preparation for a film role can involve more than timing a joke: speech patterns are part of the character he is trying to portray. The interview does not provide further detail about the film’s plot, cast or language beyond this description.
What the interview says about his screen work
The interview names Govinda Naam Mera and Jhaku among projects Ghelani has worked on, and refers to the characters he has played in sketches. It does not specify his roles in those titles or present a complete career history, so those mentions should not be read as a full filmography.
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Ghelani also frames film work as a chance to show audiences a different side of him: “People have seen one side of me through my content. Films give me the opportunity to show them another side. That is exciting because I also want to keep learning and keep experimenting as an actor.” He describes that experimentation as ongoing rather than as a finished switch from creator to actor.
How Ghelani talks about audience expectations
Ghelani says he does not want to take his audience for granted, including when a creative choice does not land: “I would never take my audience for granted. If I have made a wrong choice or wrong content or any film that people didn’t like, I will own up to it. It’s not easy.” That admission sits alongside his emphasis on learning: for him, trying a new form also means accepting that not every choice will be received well.
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Read the Hindustan Times interview by Vishakha Pandit, published 3 October 2026.
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