DO ACTORS FEAR BEING ECLIPSED?
In the aftermath of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, many fingers are being pointed at the film industry. Filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor, who directed Rajput’s debut film Kai Po Che (2013), had pointed out how the late actor was disappointed when he saw he wasn’t getting the kind of love for his film Kedarnath (2018) compared to his co-star in it, debutante Sara Ali Khan.
This has raised questions on whether instances of being sidelined during a film’s release are common, more so if an actor is working with a so-called big star or a star kid. Actor Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, who worked with stars like Salman Khan in Tubelight (2017), Shah Rukh Khan in Raees (2017) and Zero (2018) and Aamir Khan in Thugs of Hindostan (2018), acknowledges “partiality”. “This is the hierarchy. You may be a crucial part of a film but you’re sidelined all of a sudden. I don’t know much about the publicity around Kedarnath, but I know it’s always about projecting a person on the basis of their socalled ‘star value’. When you look at 3 Idiots (2009), was it about three friends? No, it was an Aamir Khan film and same with Rang De Basanti (2006),” he says.
Actor Pavail Gulati, who made his acting debut in Thappad alongside Taapsee Pannu, feels at the end of the day, it’s about business. “It doesn’t bother me. People don’t know me. I was part of a Taapsee Pannu film and I’m fine with it. But this situation is totally different from the Sushant-Sara situation. It’s also the fault of viewers, who prefer to watch one over the other,” he explains.
But all is not lost as long as you’re clear in the head about your role and contribution to a project right from the start, feels actor Arjan Bajwa. Having worked with Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Akshay Kumar and Shahid Kapoor, the actor says, “All these big stars have been very kind to me before and after the release of the film. There has not been a moment when I felt sidelined. When the atmosphere is good on the sets, you can see it in the outcome, which is the film.”
Actor Jitendra Kumar, who starred alongside Ayushmann Khurrana in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, says he never felt treated differently while on the set or in the promotions. “Both of us were equally important in the story and that is what it was,” he says.
Juhi Chakraborty