Priyontee Urbee is clear about what she wants from her career: credibility. Not hype, not headlines — but work that speaks for itself. As her OTT presence steadily grows, the actor says her focus is on strong scripts, complex characters and consistency.

“I always wanted to be an actress,” she says when asked if she would have done anything differently. “No matter what I participated in, I always thought about becoming an actress. Nothing would have stopped me or made me choose differently.”

Urbee opens up about her academic struggles while speaking to The Daily Star. She recalls being labelled the “less intelligent one” in her family after a disappointing HSC result and being compared to her higher-achieving siblings.

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That pressure pushed her towards extreme discipline. “I used to study 20 hours a day for my DU admission test. It was frantic,” she says.

Studying International Relations at Dhaka University helped her regain confidence. “It gave me a voice to counter when someone makes a wrong political statement,” she explains. Exposure to cultural diversity on campus, she adds, broadened her outlook— something she believes benefits her as an actor.

Urbee worked in “Neel Chokro” last year and says she enjoyed the experience. Still, she remains selective about film offers.

“I don’t necessarily like love stories with a typical hero and heroine,” she says. “I like stories that have depth and are a bit unique.”

If a script offers that complexity, she says she would be open to more film projects.

Urbee is also drawn to morally layered roles. In Apolap, she played an actress with a dark secret — a role that challenged the idea of the “pure” heroine.

“I don’t like it when an actress is portrayed as morally perfect. A person is grey, not black and white,” she says, adding that she would like to play a negative lead if the character is well-written.

When asked about a role that stayed with her after filming ended, she pointed to her debut project, “Kothay Palabe Bolo”. Cast at the last minute after initially assisting with rehearsals, she found herself deeply immersed in the role of a mother to an eight-day-old child.

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“After shooting, I felt empty,” she says. “I started to feel sad about missing a child that wasn’t even mine.”

The experience, she adds, made her realise how emotionally consuming acting can be.

This Eid, Urbee expects to appear in eight to 10 OTT projects, including a seven-episode drama series. She declined to share further details but emphasised that each role differs from the other.

Her career goal remains straightforward. “I’m not aiming to be something great,” she says. “But I want to build a body of work where someone can say that if Urbee is in this project, then it is worth watching.”

For now, she is focused on consistency, variety and strong scripts — letting the work speak for itself.