Mumbai, Apr 21 (IANS): With so much varied content available on the tips of your fingers, it's important to make an impact in the first few minutes, says actor Sharad Malhotra.

The actor, who recently shot for his short film 'The Hindu Boy', in Kashmir says that short films and web series are the in thing now, but they need to hit the right chord with the audience for them to be loved, appreciated and garner views.

"Short films are a great way to vent out your creative juices. They are restricted to a certain budget, so not very heavy on the pocket too. Like I said, earlier you have those pent up emotions, out of the box ideas, you can make a short film, feel good about it and if lucky, you get to showcase it on a good platform and earn some bucks too."

He adds: "Web series are the current flavour of the season. Thanks to the world going digital, everyone wants to watch something on their phone and if you crack it right, there is no looking back. I myself have been listening to some very exciting and mind boggling content for web.

"I don't know where these people are coming from, especially this new-age breed of writers are ruling the roost. Being an active part of the TV industry for the last 16-17 years in this new digital India, content is king now, everything else comes later."