It’s frustrating that casting directors feel I can only play Pammi Aunty, says Ssumier S Pasricha
Actor Ssumier S Pasricha’s recent Instagram post, which he says he wrote out of a “little frustration” managed to catch the attention of many. “Looking for one casting director who has the ability to think out of the box, who is capable enough to convince that one director that Ssumier is a good actor not just Pammi Aunty…,” he has written.
When we ask him to elaborate, the actor says, “There’ve been many times when I was in talks with various casting directors for roles. They would approach me and after some time, they would say directors have said ‘Ssumier is too big for this role, this is a small one’. Sometimes they say, ‘We can’t use him here. The image of Pammi Aunty (his character which is popular online) is very strong’. It’s frustrating.”
Ruing that the entertainment industry typecasts actors, the 40-year-old hopes for a change. He says, “If you’re a villain, you’ll remain a villain; same with heroes and comedians. I think the casting directors need to know an actor is an actor. There are times when you want to do a good role and the perception is, ‘He’s Pammi Aunty, he’ll ask for a lot of money, he does only this character’. What do they want then, if they don’t want a known actor because they don’t want to waste them? Does that mean that the person you cast instead is a waste of time? You don’t respect them?”
Insisting that he’s friends with casting directors and has nothing against them, Pasricha still wants them to broaden their horizon and not typecast an actor. “Some of them tell me, ‘The director is a fan, but they’re saying you’re big’. Yeh kya matlab hua? Whether I can do it convincingly or not is what should matter. I saw on Kapil Sharma’s comedy show once, Neena Guptaji (actor) had come as a guest, and she was talking with Archana Puran Singhji (actor), who said the same thing: ‘I want to try different things, but nobody lets me try’. If she is saying that, meri koi aukaat nahi hai. And all this happens even before I have been called for at least a reading,” shares Pasricha.