As I finished cutting papaya using
an old sheet from a Pune Mirror issue as cushion over the table top, I glanced
over the sheet that was still unstained. I must have done a clean job. What
caught my eye was the picture of two persons along with title of the piece “Take
Two”. It was an interview of actor Ronit Roy as interviewed by one reader Angad
Singh; perhaps a gesture from the newspaper. Angad Sardar ji smiled contagiously
in red t-shirt while Ronit looked dashing handsome in his black suit. “So how
different an interview this would be given that Angad was said to be a digital
marketing BD guy and not a regular journalist?” I wondered and hence I decided
to read the piece…
Angad begins with asking Ronit which
of his movies out of Udaan and Two States he loved most. I think this question
was asked to educate the uninitiated readers about the fact that Ronit was about
a well-known face in Bollywood. Next question horrified me, “What drives you to
choose a role?” I remembered this question being asked to each actor or actress
as if it was so very important; from the interviews of actors I read while
waiting at salons (hair dressers; or stylists?) for my turn at our college
joint. “Let me see Ronit’s reply”, I thought with skepticism. “I am not the
kind that can make sense of a script and its potential. So I simply go by what
the people involved in the making tell me. Moreover, if I have placed my trust
in the director or producer, I let them take a call”, said Ronit. And then he
adds that at times he gets convinced about a movie in less than a minute (is it
when he is unemployed?). Later in the same interview he tells how he turned
down his role in Two States twice but in the end when Karan Johar called him
and said, “Trust me and do it”, he accepted the movie. I wondered why one would
say all this…
Why would an actor, or better
put an employed actor who is doing movies which are famous, like to tell the
whole world including the directors and producers who could be reading this
piece of interview that he could be tricked into a role in a minute or two if
the pitch tells about personal trust and falling to emotional blackmailing is
one’s weakness? What positive impression does such a revelation leave in the
minds of businessmen who are running the show business? Wise men have told us
the benefit of remaining plain face and not to reveal our thinking or strategy
during negotiations! And here, an actor is virtually sending an open invitation
to the bad people to come and cheat him? Obviously not every producer is a
cheat and they don’t always need to convince actors so hard to make them agree
to a role (because they always discuss the money), but still there are times
when bad people do bad things and it is better for actors like Ronit to play
safe…
Now let us think how this
question is relevant for the “readers” of a newspaper like Pune Mirror? How
does Ronit Roy make a decision to join or reject a role? Is Santa Uncle or
Sammy Aunty interested in his answer to this question? Are we dreaming that one
day we shall bump into a Ronit Roy in a shopping mall and the first question we
shall shoot him down with would be “See Ronit, I have a role to offer you, and
you can trust me and go for it.”? Do the journalists who earn their paychecks asking
such irrelevant questions and wasting the time of both the celebrity actors and
their thousands of audiences ever use their mind to think why and for whose
behalf they are asking a particular question? As a reader, I would be more
interested in knowing about Ronit’s journey in the acting world, about his
struggles and successes, or when he speaks about his family and kids – that would
make my heart warm. But what do I get? Which of the two movies is your favorites
and how do you decide to take up a role? Such questions are for anyone but for
readers… And to think that such questions were asked by a reader is more depressing.
Perhaps it was edited by some seasoned journalist who has stopped growing up
and hence the result.
Still, some portions of the
interview are able to warm up our hearts. Angad asks the same stale, ancient,
abused question “would you be more comfortable doing television over cinema?”
And Ronit replies for our pleasure, “I would be most comfortable taking a walk
in the hills”. That’s it! Even the actor is sending signals that the
interviewer is being too boring.
After a while in the same
interview, Ronit’s reply lights up our sparks, “I do television because it
gives me the power to say no to bad cinema.” Wonderful and classy.
© Rahul
[Reference: ‘Take Two’, Page 21,
Pune Mirror, January 11, 2015]
[Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal and do not represent views of any organization author is associated with. You can also go through detailed disclaimer on the blog.]
