TV may be booming but aspiring actors still live six to a room. And at work,the asting couch is still their biggest challenge
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Inderjit Mahant will never forget an incident that occurred about a year ago. The 20-year-old, who has done roles in Kasturi, Koi Aane Ko Hai and recently bagged Pyaar Ka Bandhan, ran into a model coordinator at an audition who offered him a commercial. "He asked me to meet him in the make-up room. He told me it was an underwear ad and my hoardings would be all over town. I said okay," he says. The model coordinator then asked Inderjit to strip. "He said he wanted to check out my physique.
I was okay with removing my shirt but when he asked me to take off my pants, I didn't feel right. I understood what he was indirectly implying and told him I was straight. Then he said 'Ek baar compromise karle, bahut achcha break doonga'." Inderjit yelled at him and walked out. Later that day, he told his father what had happened. His father, who was always against Inderjit's acting dreams did say I-told-you-so but added that now that he was in the industry, Inderjit had to stand up for himself.
Former Delhiite Amit Roshan, who will soon feature in an upcoming soap, has faced the casting couch too, only this was in the fashion industry. "Earlier, I used to walk the ramp to make a quick buck. One guy told me to compromise, he said this is how the industry works but I refused," he says.u00a0
Television producer Rajan Shahi whose Bidaai, Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlaata Hai and Swarg are current hits, was once offered 'meetings' with girls by a model coordinator. "I just lost it! I threw him out and told my supervising producer that we didn't ever want to work with that coordinator," he says.
Bribe traps too
Casting director Dimpy Sinha who has worked on shows Naa Aana Iss Des Laado, Choti Bahu and Radhaa ki Betiyaan Kuch Kar Dikhaayengi, isn't surprised. According to her, the casting couch does exist as does the concept of bribe. "Most struggling actors fall prey to both," she says.
Dimpy herself has been offered 10 per cent cuts by actors in return for work and had to firmly turn them down. "Some actors pay their coordinators 20 per cent extra to get work." But she wants to make it clear that 'compromise' doesn't lead to more work, not on television at least.
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Amit Roshan fixes chai in his flat. He has been waiting for his big break for three years now |
Writer-producer Mamta Pattnaik seconds her. "Casting directors shortlist possible faces for a role and send them to the producers, who send them to the channel. An actor's fate doesn't hang in balance waiting for one person's approval." Mamta also feels that the audiences will never accept an actor or actress who isn't suited to his/her character.
"Good characters and performances are what matter here. Unlike films, in which the producer's approval is all important, there's no one boss on TV," explains Rajan.
Casting director for shows like Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo, Sohan Thakur, believes that underhand methods might work but not in the long run.
In fact, if you agree with Dimpy, there is enough work for all on television these days since looks don't matter as much anymore. "Colors brought in the concept of rural and socially relevant soaps, so heroes and heroines no longer need to be urbane, fair and beautiful.
Talent matters and unconventional looks work," she says. Yet, it's a vicious circle. Several roles are available but the number of strugglers who think they can make it are far larger in numbers and so get duped into 'shortcuts.' Most of the glamour-struck, according to Mamta, come from the north, mainly Delhi, Bhopal and Patna. They come in groups, live together, audition for roles together, make it or don't, stay on or don't.
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Ratan Rajput in Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo Television roles have been cakewalk for her though finding a house in Mumbai hasn't |
Amit Roshan knows what that's like. The actor/public relations executive, has been living in Mumbai for three years now. He stays in a one-bedroom apartment with five friends from Ghaziabad, Patna, Sahranpur, Jaipur and Delhi. The flat, a confusion of mattresses, suitcases and shoes, a television propped up by newspapers, is clearly like a 'waiting room' for these boys.
Each is hoping to get a big break, earn more and get a bigger better roof over their heads. But Amit and his roommates, of whom Kunal Sinha, Arvind Kumar and Gladwin John want to be part of the television and/or film industry, insist that their friendship won't be torn by inflated egos. "If one of us gets called for an audition, all of us go," says Amit, smiling. Dimpy had once called Amit and Arvind tagged along too. It so happened that Arvind was chosen. "I did feel bad, but it's okay," he admits, as Arvind adds, "But then he got called back. He's playing that role now not me."
Man-woman ratio
According to Dimpy, the number of male strugglers is more compared to female because men can afford to travel around to different offices in one day, without messing up their clothes or make-up. "Women are also more hard-working, more open to criticism and improvement and so find it easier to bag roles," she adds.
Aggressiveness is the name of the game. They line up for auditions for which they weren't called, drop photographs at production houses, stand for hours outside casting director's offices. "I've had actors begging me to give them work.
They say they have Rs 20 and can't go back home," says Dimpy. She believes in telling the truth and has on many an occasion told a wannabe actor that he ought to find a different vocation. Things get ugly too with some strugglers giving her threatening calls.
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Kinshuk Mahajan in his Malad apartment. The actor who is currently playing a principal role in Bidaai, believes that shortcuts take one nowhere on television.u00a0pic/Pradeep Dhivar |
"Some of them send me messages on social networking websites or my mobile, saying that this isn't a good thing, I don't value them and so on," she says.
Cameos could get them noticed though not everyone has that luck. It didn't really work for Inderjit. The actor travelled every day for close to a year from Vashi to Andheri where he would make the rounds of production houses for 14 hours.
He landed a cameo in Raajkumar Aryan only to realise once the camera started rolling, that he was guard to the prince and had no dialogue. He has now bagged the fourth lead in Pyaar ka Bandhan but it has taken him nearly two years to get this far.
Appearances are difficult to keep too. Considering they have to face the camera, actors need to maintain themselves, make sure they're presentable at auditions, and most also resort to 'showing off'. "They have to carry the latest model of mobile phone, flash branded footwear it's very expensive business even being a struggler," says Dimpy. But she concedes that first impressions do matter.
The x-factor For some it is cakewalk. Ratan Rajput, the lead in one of TV's current toppers, Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo, was completely raw when she walked into Dimpy's office a couple of years ago. "She had no make-up on, her eyebrows weren't even shaped," says Dimpy with a smile. But the casting director felt there was something about the girl and she performed well too.
This, Mamta says, is the X factor that television looks for. "Looks may not be a deciding factor anymore but there has to be something about you. Your eyes, your smileu00c3u00a2u00c2u0080u00c2u00a6 like how Shah Rukh Khan who is otherwise not great looking has his dimples and his energy," she explains. Ratan was chosen, groomed and then cast in Radhaa ki Betiyaan Kuch Kar Dikhaayengi.
While work wasn't a struggle for the youngster from Patna, Ratan, who came to Mumbai with two other friends, had to struggle to find a house in the city. She giggles as she talks of living alone in a not-fully-constructed flat in Goregaon for a few weeks. "I was so scared, I'd try and stay out at night and sleep during the day," she says. Now, armed with her first big break and flat, she lives with her sister.
Then there is the incidental actor, like Gaurav Khanna, who landed in Mumbai to do his MBA in marketing. He was spotted by someone in the gym and then decided to try his hand at modelling and acting. "I did a role in Siddhanth, then Kumkum and then other shows just came to me," says the actor.
Gaurav never felt the need to share an apartment and while he claims he has also struggled, he admits he hasn't struggled as much as some others. As for the casting couch, the actor says he hasn't faced it ever but agrees that it does exist.
For Mohit Sehgal and Kinshuk Mahajan, living together was abiding by a condition set by Mohit's dad. The actors are both from Delhi and while Kinshuk came down after a role in Dhoom Machaale Dhoom, Mohit's father was against the glamour line.
"Mohit's dad said he'd let him come to Mumbai but only if he stayed with me," says Kinshuk. About a year later, today, Mohit and Kinshuk, both leading men in dailies Miley Jab Hum Tum and Bidaai, live in different flats of the same building.u00a0
Kinshuk also insists that neither of them has ever been asked to 'compromise', his logic being that until and unless one wants to, these things don't happen. "As it is, no one person on TV can guarantee you a role," he says, echoing Dimpy and Mamta.
"Destiny, talent and looks, in that order, are what play the biggest role," says Rajan Shahi. He adds that despite some ugly parts to it, television is a transparent industry. "I'd want my daughter to be a part of this medium," he says.
