‘BOLLYWOOD IS MORE MODERN NOW’
About Actor Rimi Sen talks in showbiz her second innings is not lost and insists why all her for performers like
Actor Rimi Sen known best for her roles in multi-starrers like Dhoom, Hungama, Hera Pheri 2, Golmaal made her way back to Indian television with the last season of Bigg Boss. But having stayed away from the limelight, she feels has done her more good, than bad.
“I was getting small roles in only a few comedy films. It was the same story in one film after another where a bunch of boys are shown chasing me and sharing inappropriate jokes behind my back. Initially, I did them all because they were all big budget films and I didn’t want to give up the opportunity. Also, I didn’t know how to do anything else. I used to think that I am an actor and I would go to the sets and do whatever the director asked me to do. It sort of went on to becoming extremely monotonous and mechanical,” recalls the actor who started working in films at the age of 14 years in order to bail her family out of financial instability. She has also worked in Telegu and Bengali films in her early years.
She also recalls her frustration came from the fact that she didn’t get the roles she wanted to do. “I was looking for meaty roles and wanted to do films that dealt with serious subjects, subjects that affected the common man. But that too didn’t work out for me, the films didn’t do well. The options really came down and I started getting offered bit roles in multi-starrers all over again. So that kind of turned me off. I was stuck in between. I am not the kind of person who will keep doing substandard stuff day in and day out, just for the sake of money. So, I decided to take a break. But now I realise, 10 years is a long time to take a break.”
Her creative instincts craved for more, something she took a while to figure out. “It took me a lot of time to understand the process of acting. When you are so mechanical you reach a point in your career when you are removed from reality and cannot assess things as they really are. It is very important to be close to reality if you want to attain long term success in Bollywood,” she pointed out when asked why she decided to take a break.
Though she has got a lot of exposure after her recent stint with Bigg Boss, Sen claims she would rather work behind the camera than in front of it. “I really don’t want to work in front of the camera again. In my earlier tryst with Hindi films, I longed for creative satisfaction. But it didn’t happen to me. For the last 10 years, I have been on a break. All this time I honed my skills learning script-writing and production work. I spent a lot of time with myself and decided to take good care of myself. I don’t think I am mature enough to direct a film but I would love to produce good meaningful cinema or even a web series,” she added.
The actor is also thrilled that things are not the same as they were 10 years ago and actors now have more scope to do meaningful work.
“A lot has changed over the last decade and I really don’t know how the industry works right now. Today there are lots of young people. Earlier there used to be this monopoly of superstars. Things are now modern and also subtle at the same time. Today directors and producers promote talent because the script they are working on demands talent. Only skilled actors can pull off the kind of characters we see on web shows. The new crop of directors know how to tap the right kind of talent,” she signed off.
“I was looking for meaty roles and wanted to do films that dealt with serious subjects, subjects that affected the common man. But that too didn’t work out for me, the films didn’t do well. The options really came down and I started getting offered bit roles in multi-starrers all over again.”