Jul 22, 2026 3:17pm IST
Barkha Singh: ‘People think I can’t act and makers are only casting me for social media numbers’ (EXCLUSIVE)
There have been conversations around actors being cast in roles based on their social media following. That follower count is now seen as an indicator of an artiste’s marketability. Barkha Singh, who commands over 2.6 million followers on Instagram, says her social media has been both an asset and a challenge. In a conversation with Variety India, she opens up about being mistaken for a creator-turned-actor, why she believes her digital popularity is a byproduct of her work, and how she is navigating the industry’s perceptions while gearing up for the release of “Bhai Tera Star Hai.”
Singh shares that she began as an actor, and her social media following comes from a wide range of youth-oriented TV shows she has been part of. “I started my journey as an actor. And when I started with “MTV Girls on Top,” I didn’t even have an Instagram account. Most of my Instagram followers have come from the three shows I’ve done - “MTV Girls on Top,” TVF’s “Engineering Girls,” and Dice Media’s “Please Find Attached.” These are the shows that got me social media following because I have never really been a beauty or fashion creator. I didn’t even know what content creation was. There is a common misconception in the industry that I am a creator-turned-actor. The truth is, I’ve actually always been an actor who got a social media following because of the shows that I did,” she adds.
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But having a good social media following has also invited negative talk about getting work without any acting abilities. “People often say that I get cast because of my social media following. People think I don’t know how to act and makers are only casting me for my (social media) numbers. You know how people speak about nepo kids? They speak like that about people who have social media following. But a doctor’s kid will be a doctor only. Similarly, an actor’s kid will be an actor. However, they have to prove themselves because they have so many eyes on them. So likewise, it also happens with people who have good social media following,” Singh shares.
She states that she started as an actor and later turned popular on social media. “I’d like to clarify that I started my journey off as an actor with “Mujhse Dosti Karoge!” (2002) and “Bhagyalaxmi” (2015). The good following is just a byproduct of the shows I did,” the “Maja Ma” actress says.
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Singh is currently awaiting the release of her new film, “Bhai Tera Star Hai,” alongside Raghav Juyal. Opening up on how she became a part of the movie, she says, “I was the last person to be cast in the movie. One fine day, director Vivek B. Agrawal called me and told me that he had a character written. He also gave me some time to make up my mind. They were going to shoot in London in another 10 days.”
But what made her say yes to the project? Singh explains that her character is someone many women would be able to relate to. “I fell in love with Laila, my character. I don’t know whether I am being biased, but she felt relatable. She is someone who has the strength to endure things. This was also my way of coming back to the romance genre. I had done “Criminal Justice” (2019) and “Masaba Masaba” (2020) before. These projects didn’t really have romance for me to explore. All the other characters I’d done off late were all de-glammed, with zero makeup. The looks were low-key corporate. I’m back with a full glam avatar in this,” she adds.
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