Sushant Singh Rajput has made a successful shift from TV to films but he recently admitted that not all TV actors are as lucky. His girlfriend Ankita Lokhande recently lost out on a plum role opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Happy New Year. Sushant, in a recent interview, lamented that unfortunately most TV stars tend to get typecast with their on-screen characters. While there are a lot of actors waiting in the wings for that big Bollywood break, only a handful have managed a successful cross over.
One among these few is Vicky Donor actress Yaami Gautam, who feels lucky that she has been offered varied roles right in her first year in the film industry. Yaami says, “I entered films with an open mind and Shoojit Sircar cast me based on my talent, not on my image on TV. I think I have made a place in the industry and have Aman Ki Asha with Ali Zafar and a film with Ajay Devgn to look forward to.”
However, not all are as lucky. A popular face on TV, actress Shama Sikander admits to being at the receiving end of the film industry’s biased nature. She reveals, “Filmmakers are very hesitant to take people from TV. Especially the famous ones. They have this weird thinking that viewers will not come to the theatre to see them as they are overexposed on TV. I think it is a very stupid thought because our viewers are very intelligent. It’s like saying ‘Oh sorry, you are not good enough for films because you were good on TV.’ That doesn’t make any sense to me.” Shama adds that the biased treatment by filmmakers affected her badly and damaged her self-confidence. “It was very tough. I got into depression thinking things will never change. It is very discouraging for an actor to hear that they can’t be selected because she/he has a particular image. An actor works really hard to make that image on TV or to be appreciated by people for his/her performance and once that’s done, the actor wants to move ahead and do something better. And then they are told that that image is not good for their film.”
However, Shama feels that things are slowly changing, as the new lot of filmmakers is very open-minded and intelligent. They are taking risks by making good cinema on different subjects where a character and performer is more important than an image they have on TV.
Eijaz Khan, who has acted in a film like Tanu Weds Manu and will soon be seen in Lucky Kabootar, says, “Film producers used to be biased against TV folks initially, especially over their on-screen avatar. But times have changed. TV actors’ fan following is massive and is, in fact, a great advantage. If the performance is good and the subject of the film is good, an actor will be accepted irrespective of where he is coming from. You are overexposed on television is just an excuse. In today’s time, the audience’s acceptance is more and a greater variety of cinema is being made. Bollywood stars are doing TV and TV is considered huge.”
Mrunal Jain is taking the leap from television to cinema and will soon be seen in Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya 2. “Initially when I started trying for films, a few people did react by saying that I’m just a TV actor. But Ram Gopal Verma was a thorough professional. When I met him he judged me purely on talent and gave me a good break in Satya 2. My role is well-etched and fits the script.”