Siddharth on His 2026 Roles: ‘I’m Very Grateful That We Live in the Streaming Age’

Actor Siddharth had plenty to celebrate when he took the stage at FICCI Frames 2026, where he spoke about his recent work, the trust filmmakers have placed in him and what the streaming boom has meant for actors looking for unconventional roles. Sharing the panel with filmmaker Farah Khan, actor-director Riteish Deshmukh and Netflix India’s Vice President of Content Monika Shergill, Siddharth reflected on a year that saw him take on two strikingly different characters. And while talking about what comes next, the actor made it clear that he remains grateful simply for the opportunity to keep surprising audiences.

Opening up about the faith directors have shown in him, Siddharth said, “I think as an actor first of all I'm very grateful. Hi guys thank you for having me on this panel. Secondly, I'm very grateful for the work I get. I'm very grateful for the belief that people put in me. So the difference between Ajay Ahuja and Badru (his character in Safed Sagar and Lust Stories 3) is not that much actually because the director who, you know, gave me Ajay and wanted me to walk in his shoes. Then somebody else gave me, you know, Vishal Bhardwaj gave me Badru and wanted me to walk in his little sarong. So the confidence and belief they put in you is the same.” The comparison perfectly captured the range of his recent roles, moving from a decorated war hero to a character in a very different kind of story.

Siddharth then shared a hilarious anecdote about how his contrasting performances managed to confuse even a senior admirer. He recalled, “And to put it in an even lighter vein, I got a message from a very lovely senior lady who said, ‘Beta, I loved your work in Safed Chadar.’ So I wanted to know which performance [laughter] she was talking about. Was she talking about, you know, the Kargil story or Vishal Bhardwaj's bedroom fantasy? So I was like okay, let me first clarify that.” The amusing story brought plenty of laughter to the panel while also highlighting just how dramatically different his two 2026 projects have been.

The actor went on to credit Netflix and the streaming era for giving him the opportunity to take on such contrasting material within a short span. “But having said that mainly thank you to Netflix for making it possible for an actor in 90 days to have, you know, Operation Safed Sagar playing a decorated war hero and playing a woman's fantasy of her own husband where she fantasizes about her own husband in her secret fantasies, which I found extremely progressive and it talks about what women want, which I think is an equally important agenda to talk about if you will,” Siddharth said. His comments reflect how streaming platforms have created space for actors to move between genres and characters without being confined to one particular screen image.

Siddharth’s two Netflix projects in 2026 showcased exactly that contrast. In Operation Safed Sagar, he portrayed Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja, opposite Amrita Bagchi, in a story based around Operation Safed Sagar during the Kargil War. He then appeared in Lust Stories 3, the third instalment of the Netflix anthology franchise, with the segment directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. The film premiered on Netflix on September 18, 2026, and featured an ensemble cast including Radhika Apte, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vijay Varma, Abhishek Banerjee, Gurfateh Pirzada, Sana Thampi, Ali Fazal, Radhika Madan and Aditi Rao Hydari alongside Siddharth.

Wrapping up his thoughts on the opportunities available to performers today, Siddharth said, “And I'm just very grateful that we live in the streaming age where you can get work like that and just in one word say to so that's about it.” His appearance at FICCI Frames 2026 offered a glimpse into an actor enjoying the freedom to experiment, whether playing a real-life war hero or stepping into a much more unconventional relationship-driven story. For Siddharth, the question of “what’s next?” may remain open—but if his recent choices are anything to go by, audiences can expect him to continue walking into roles that offer something distinctly different.

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