‘In Mumbai if you say no to roles, you become enemy’

By Kishori Sud

Lonavla, Sep 3 (IANS) He is known for his performance in the film "Taare Zameen Par" as the father a the dyslexic child and has since then essayed and is offered a lot of fatherly roles. Unhappy with the cliche casting, actor Vipin Sharma says a major struggle that an actor faces in the film industry in Mumbai is that you cannot say no to roles else you become the enemy.

Present at the first edition of LIFFT India Filmotsav 2017, here, on Saturday, Vipin conducted a master class amid actors like Tanuja and Kanwaljit Singh with the director of LIFFT India Filmotsav, Riju Bajaj, sitting on the other side to question him.

Categorised as the "universal dad" in the film industry, Vipin said: "This is cliche casting because they still cast me as the father, I still get that. And I am tired of it".

"In Mumbai, another struggle for the actor is that if you say no, you become an enemy. It's very difficult. I try, I really try . I understand how old I am, yes I fit that category very well. But I want to do something else too".

"I don't want namelessly father roles. It's is very difficult. In Mumbai if you ask for the script you become bad... 'why do you want to read the script'," added Vipin, who is an alumnus of the prestigious acting school National School of Drama.

Hailing actors like Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddique, Vipin, who has films like "Paan Singh Tomar", "Gangs of Wasseypur" and "Raanjhanaa" to his credit, says he "admires Aactors who have struggled for so long to create a space for themselves which they already deserved".

"People like (late actor) Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah... we really liked up to them but when you come here you realise that it is a really big fight. Somehow the city... Lot of people don't understand acting and actors in the context we should be understood," added Vipin.

Talking about the art and definition of acting, Vipin, who was last seen in veteran filmmaker Mani Ratnam's directorial "Kaatru Veliyidai", opined that
for a lot of people, acting happens between action and then word 'cut'. But he believes that "acting is before that and then you say cut".

Vipin reminisced that despite being an NSD pass out, he doubted his acting skills and went to Canada and became an editor.

"I had quit acting for a decade and I became an editor. I am a professional editor now. I have edited lots of short films, videos...

"Irrfan and I were friends since NSD days... at that time "Maqbool" had released and he said that things are changing in Indian cinema. So I went and saw it, agreed that Indian cinema has certainly changed," he said.

"So when I decided to act again while in Toronto, a friend told me about the Meisner Acting Classes. I stayed there for 30 weeks. Unfortunately in India not many know about it. It's an amazing technique. Although there are a few of fake Meisnar classes happening in India," he added.

Besides acting, Vipin is also penning scripts and has made a film," Akki Te Vikki Te Tikki", which is a story of three non-actors who think that they are actors.

He has also completed writing another script, and his web series titled, "What the Folks (WTF!)".

LIFFT India Filmotsav 2017 started here on Friday and will go on till September 5.

(The writer's trip is at the invitation of LIFFT India Filmotsav 2017. Kishori Sud can be contacted at kishori.s@ians.in)