Manoj Bajpayee and Divya Dutta discussed how Bollywood unfairly labels actors as supporting or character artists. Divya said, “I detest those tags as supporting or character actor.” Manoj shared that he fought many battles against this hierarchy. They feel the rise of OTT platforms finally changed things for the better.
Continuing the conversation about actors being stereotyped, Divya Dutta expressed her angst by admitting that she “detests” the supporting actor or character actor’s tag. “I detest those tags as supporting (actor) or character (actor) because when you don’t know which bracket you should put the actor in, then you end up giving that actor an easy generic view.”
Manoj Bajpayee, admitted that he has experienced this and fought battles to survive. He shared, “I think that angst is very much understandable because we are still so colonised and believe in a lot in hierarchy. He is the main actor, she is the main actor, this one is a character actor, this one is a supporting actor — based on these we fix the hierarchy. I have been through this phase, and I’ve fought so many battles on personal levels, but I am happy, as Divya rightly said that it is not there anymore.”
“But why can’t you just be an actor? I would be playing a villain in a film, I would be playing the lead in another. I had a show (Chiraiya), which is totally on my shoulders, which did extremely well but that doesn’t mean, that is not…you are just pitching on one thing. I feel there is a phase among people where they think that we are not getting any other tag because we are sheer lazy, let’s call them this (supporting actor) only. We don’t like it, please don’t call us that. We consider ourselves complete actors, and the scenes in which we are there, we are the hero of those scenes,” said Divya, who received a nod from co-actor Manoj.
However, the actors feel that due to the surge of OTT, gradually things are evolving, and there is a discussion about actors and stories among the cinegoers. “There used to be a lot of unfairness with a lot of actors doing secondary roles but now things are far better. Many of the producers are very mindful about giving the same food to everyone. Mainly after the emergence of OTT here, things have changed drastically and we should always thank the coming of OTT in our country, and the families are watching. They can easily point it out and they talk about it in detail. When I am sitting, let’s say, with a DM (District Magistrate) or his family, they are talking about the character and the details of the story so well, which is beyond your comprehension, and they know exactly where the things went wrong. I like to listen to them far way more than any other critic’s piece,” sighed Manoj Bajpayee.