It’s not a new debate that how many talented actors are sidelined, not given their due, and in fact made to believe that they will have to settle for less in order to survive in the fancy world of Bollywood. You would agree to the fact that Randeep Hooda’s talent has been wasted in many movies and he truly deserves to be celebrated way more than he has been until now. It’s sad that Bollywood hasn’t done anything to truly appreciate the actor of his calibre.

Bollywood did sideline him and he doesn’t believe in succumbing to the ways the glam industry functions. In an interview with Pinkvilla, the actor shared why he prefers to stay away from Bollywood’s quintessential lifestyle. He said, “There is a life that I want to lead and that ideal Bollywood life of dressing up and going to these parties and being a part of the self-congratulatory cliques-- you know, the kind of a system that exists – No, I don’t miss it. My life has been about trying to live my characters, trying to live life as away from the trappings of it as much as possible; so that I don’t lose touch with the reality of life. Once you lose touch with the reality of life that’s where it starts to show on the screen. You start to appear unreal. So, I have always kept that around me. It’s my ideal lifestyle I don’t have to copy anybody. In fact, I have not given into the kind of culture that we have in the industry. There is certain sycophancy; there is a certain way of dealing with people. Everybody is an artist and so I feel and always have felt at par with everybody. There should be a sense of respect, which is there. But apart from that, I have not catered to that kind of a mindset.”

We completely agree with the fact that once an actor loses the vision, he or she doesn’t look convincing on the screen. The actor also spoke about how the star system has always driven Bollywood and it needs to stop. This is one of the reasons that we are unable to compete with world cinema.

He said, “I’m just an artist. I’m just an actor. I have done movies of all genres. I have done Hindi movies. I have done commercial movies. I have even delved a little into song and dance in a couple of movies; I was not very great at it. There was a time when songs of a film used to take the screenplay forward. But now, it’s more of a disruption. I want to move on and watch the story. The industry always measures it from the point of view of numbers and who they like to cast. That star system has to change.”

He also added how Bollywood chooses the star first and then builds the script taking that actor in mind.

“We have got a huge industry but we’re not really able to compete with the world because [ideally] the script comes first and then the casting is done according to the script or the story. Here, you have to cast a star and then the story is built around. Therefore, a lot of inappropriate casting happens where you know the storyteller is also not left with much to play. This system, obviously, has to change. It has to be about the story, the script, and then you cast actors according to who suits that character the best. Rather than just going for those few names because they are the stars and everybody else is kachra - that’s not the case. It has to be more about storytelling than just be about you know pandering to a star system,” he added.

Randeep’s talent has always been underappreciated by the Bollywood circle and he has now gotten used to it. When his Hollywood venture released, he got appreciation from across the border but not many Bollywood celebs praised his act.

On this, he added, “Well I’m quite used to it. It does happen time and again, well that’s okay. Maybe they didn’t like my acting, liked my action maybe, that’s why they didn’t speak up. But yeah there is a lot of hoopla that happens you know amongst people within the industry which did not happen for this. But, hey maybe as I said before maybe you didn’t like my acting.”

We wonder when would Bollywood realize the calibre of actors like Randeep and cast them in movies that can give them their due.

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