India, May 5 -- At a time when opinions are divided about the rising popularity of streaming platforms, actor Saif Ali Khan lauded their rise, calling it a liberating development for actors. "It's been the most liberating and amazing thing for all actors all over the world. Earlier, we had to kind of fit into specific boxes, and there was a formula, a look, a style for the kind of thing you had to do. Today, thanks to streaming platforms, we can explore characters in a very different way and go into much more depth. It is a fantastic platform to showcase all kinds of things like long-form storytelling," Saif said during a panel discussion with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos at the World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit (WAVES) in Mumbai on Saturday. The 54-year-old also highlighted the global reach of OTT platforms, noting that they fetch him more attention than his theatrical releases: "It goes out around the world and to so many people. I get phone calls from people who wouldn't normally call me for a cinematic release, but on Netflix, everybody rings up. People ring up from Europe and America, and we're compared to the rest of the world. It's a very, very exciting space." However, Saif asserted that the popularity and reach of OTT platforms cannot be a threat to theatres. "Cinemas are not outdated. Streaming and theatres are not competitors. They can move ahead coexisting with each other as the market is huge," he said. He also said that he loves stories rooted in Indian culture. "If someone abroad asks me about my films, I talk about Parineeta (2005) or Omkara (2006) - films deeply connected to our culture. There's something incredibly thrilling about telling our own stories to the world," said Saif. htc...