Jason Shah made quite a stir with his portrayal of the character Cartwright in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Heeramandi.' The actor played the role of a British cop with immense gravitas and subsequently received a lot of praise from the audience. Jason has been a part of the Indian film fraternity for many years now, and recently, the actor made some claims. He spoke about how most Indian actors are extremely insecure, and that is what comes between them wanting to experiment and trying to hold on to their image.
The 'Heeramandi' actor candidly opened up about the current state of Indian cinema and tried to reason about why it is the way it is in a conversation with News18 Showsha. Jason expressed that based on his observation, directors are copying one another and basing their projects on the same hit factor, which, of course, is getting in the way of experimenting with content.
He said, "I definitely think a lot of things in India can be explored more, and I'm hoping that they do. I think everybody just starts copying everybody. Especially right now, it's like a heavy, violent zone that has come into movies, and that's been going on for quite some time. You saw it starting off with KGF and RRR, and now it's in Animal and then Dhurandhar. I mean, it's also speaking for this generation, which I can see is quite bloodthirsty. I'm part of it. It pays my bills."
Jason cited Mohit Suri's name as someone who has had the guts to go against whatever the trend is and put forth and work on a story that he truly believes in. This was in reference to how, when most Bollywood directors are following the action format for hits, Suri delivered 'Saiyaara', which did well at the box office.
However, while pondering whether his character in Heeramandi could be played with and experimented with, the actor spoke about how it does not simply depend on the director, but rather it also depends on the actor about what they can do with the role on set.
Jason mentioned, "I think in India, at least from all the projects I've done — from my time in television to web series and films — I would say 90 per cent of actors are insecure. I wouldn't blame it so much on the directors. I would also put a little bit of the responsibility on the actors. Are actors really coming into work, or are they bringing their name to the set — 'Oh, it's this person on set', rather than, 'This is the character I want to do 100 per cent justice to,' which I see as a weak point."
For those unversed, Jason made his Bollywood debut in 2007 with 'Partner', directed by David Dhawan, featuring Salman Khan, Govinda, Katrina Kaif and Lara Dutta in pivotal roles. From Fitoor to Thugs of Hindostan, he has featured in several films as well as television shows such as Jhansi ki Rani.
