Terribly typecast tales

From Kangana Ranaut to Bhumi Pednekar, actors are often typecast for their roles. And they find it baffling, frustrating and amusing to be identified by people not as their individual selves but as the characters they have played.

It is both a positive and negative aspect of stardom that the actor gets recognised by and identified with the roles he/she plays on screen. Shubh Mangal Savdhan actress Bhumi Pednekar recently spoke about how people mistakenly assume actors’ lives are like the work they do. The actress — who rose to stardom right from her first film Dum Laga ke Haisha followed by Toilet: Ek Prem Katha — says that being a part of content-driven cinema and doing roles of a simple girl (read “village girl”) doesn’t mean that she is the same in real life. Similarly, Queen actress Kangana Ranaut has been upfront that she wasn’t a queen when she entered the industry, and people used to mock her English speaking skills, her background and the conservative environment she grew up in.

How baffling, frustrating or amusing is it for actors to be identified not as their individual selves but by the roles they have played on screen?

Bhumi Pednekar recently condemned how people mistakenly assume her life to be similar to the roles she had played so far.

Actor Yashpal Sharma, who is popular for the role of Sunder Yadav in Prakash Jha’s Gangaajal, admits that many people are scared of him because of that role. “I was shocked to see that my own children started indulging in violence after they saw me in Gangaajal. I felt that if my own children are reacting like that, then it would have a similar impact on many other children too. I was offered similar roles after that but decided to opt for less violent roles because I didn’t want to be someone who scares people. Lekin ek image honi zarur chahiye kyunki agar koi image hi nahi hai, toh todoge kisko?” he says, adding, “Actors need to keep experimenting so that they don’t get typecast by people.”

The Lagaan actor believes that the masses have a short-lived memory. Chances of actors being typecast are less if they keep surprising the audience with a variety of roles on screen.

Agrees TV actor Saumya Tandon, who is popular for her role in the daily soap Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hai! “Public memory is very short. Vidya Balan, for instance, began with Hum Paanch but no one remembers that about her anymore,” she says.

Ssharad Malhotraa

About her role in Bhabhi Ji, she adds, “Anita is someone who is overtly romantic and has a good control over her husband. Whenever I meet fans, many say that they want a bahu like me. While I take it as a compliment that my work is convincing enough for people to appreciate and find a role model in it, I find it funny that people would think that I am Anita in real life too. So, I always aspire to do different kinds of roles so that I evolve as an actor.”

However, for Masaan actress Shweta Tripathi, who continues to be recognized as Zenia Khan from the telly show Kya Mast Hai Life, being typecast for one’s performance is more rewarding than a reason to worry. She explains, “Somewhere it is very satisfying to be known for one role. But continuing to play the same kind of role will make people not accept you when you experiment. As an actor, it depends on me to present people what all I’m capable of. For instance, I am playing a drug addict in my next film. You have to constantly try coming out of the boxes that people put you in. People like to typecast and label you. It is an actor’s responsibility to prove them wrong and surprise them. But I really enjoy when people call me by my character name,” she smiles.