Oct 16, 2024 09:58 AM IST
Akhilendra Mishra gives a strong opinion on the monetary exploitation of character actors in Bollywood, the absence of royalty system and lack of good writing
Actor Rajit Kapur recently made a statement that character actors in Bollywood are monetarily exploited even today. Agreeing with him, actor Akhilendra Mishra says, “Har producer paisa kam dena chahta hai. Koi lihaaj nahi karta. Now corporate culture has come, so the people discussing remuneration are new people who aren’t even aware of your body of work. Unhe maloom hi nahi hai kaun kya hai. Wo bas phone uthake call kar dete hain aur bargain karte hain.”
The 62-year-old goes on to state, “Is industry mein paisa sirf stars ke paas hai aur kisi ke paas nahi. Producer sirf usi ko paisa de rahe hain. Aaj bhi character artiste agar hospitalised ho jaye, to dawai ka bhi paisa nahi hai, ikattha karna padta hai. There are so many musicians, art directors and even actors who die in oblivion. Wo gumnami aur gareebi mein marr jate hain aur pata bhi nahi chalta. Paisa kamata sirf star aur producer hai, aur koi kamata hi nahi hai.”
He credits the problem to the lack of royalty system in the industry: “We compare ourselves to Hollywood in every department, toh royalty bhi fix karo na. Even the person gving water on a Hollywood set gets royalty directly in their bank account without them even knowing. There is so much honesty and transparency. But here, the day this interview gets out about me asking for royalty, main sabka dushman ban jaunga.”
Akhilendra, known for his roles in films like Lagaan (2001), The Legend Of Bhagat Singh (2002), Hulchul (2004) and Ready (2011) amongst others, agrees that stars are the selling point of any film, but asserts that character artistes are its soul. “Ab character artiste ke naam pe to film bikne wali hai nahi. Par film ki aatma character artiste hota hai. If a film doesn’t have good character artistes, that film doesn’t have a soul because it doesn’t have performances,” he says.
The actor even brings up the issue of lack of money given to writers: “Jis script pe saaara paisa kharch hota hai, us script pe paisa kharch nahi hota. India is a land of stories, and we grow up listening to those stories from our grandmothers. Jab kahaniyon pe bade ho rahe hain aur kahaniyon ka desh hai to kahaniyon ki kami kyun hai? Bas cut-paste karte hain West ka. Kyun rights lene padte hain West se aur South se?”
Akhilendra points out that in olden times, South industry used to bag rights of Hindi films and make it in regional languages, but now the situation has reversed. “The South earns more than us because we are just doing cut-paste here. Kuch to itni ajeeb films ban rahi hain ki wo bas buffoon hain,” he ends.
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