The outsider vs insider debate surrounding Bollywood came to the spotlight after the death of B-town actor Sushant Singh Rajput. While some celebs opined that many have become the victim of this vicious practice, others also said that not all outsiders are treated poorly.
Actor Celina Jaitly who stepped into the Indian film industry after being crowned Miss India in 2001 said that a person who doesn’t come from a film background is given fewer opportunities than those with good contacts.
“You realize that you have a talent and you need the right platform and need to work with the right people. When you start going to these people, they turn a blind eye to you,” she said in an interview with Hindustan Times.
“They do not give you that opportunity because those opportunities in our industry are reserved for a privileged few only. You do that again and again and people try to tell you that you are not good enough. You reach a point where you can actually succumb to that,” Celina added.
The actor who featured in many successful movies like ‘Silsiilay’, ‘No Entry’, and ‘Tom, Dick and Harry’ among others said that this was one of the reasons why she left the cinema. “You can only try that hard to convince people to cast you.”
“Most of the meaty parts, good roles and good films are reserved for people who have privileges, who either belong to a camp or come from a film family.”
“When you are an outsider, you can try to push and do your best, but then comes a certain limit when you can’t do that anymore. So you have a choice to succumb to the bullying of people and not getting the right offers until you start believing that you are a failure. Or you move on in life and do other things. You recharge, rejuvenate, regenerate and come back again,” she added.
The ‘Janasheen’ actor further divulged that people started using her as a ‘prop’ in their films. “For me, it was all about personal growth. What’s the use if I am not happy doing something and if I am feeling that I am constantly being put down and pushed into a corner. I don’t have many allies whom I can turn to for support. You can only go to people but then you’re constantly turned away.”
“You have an option of doing cinema where you are just a prop. I didn’t want to continue being a prop, there is a lot more to me as a performer.”
“If I am required to be a mannequin or a prop as a performer, I am happy to do that but if you just want to make sure that your screen looks good then I don’t want to do that anymore,” she quipped.
She also said that some even had problems giving her the movie script. “If you want a script, they say, ‘apne aap ko bahut bada actor samajhti hai (she considers herself to be a big actor). I started facing it after the first few years of my career because no actor has a success graph which goes all the way up, especially us women.”
Celina went on to say, “If a big star’s son or daughter comes on board and even if the first 5 films are complete flops at the box office, they continue to work with the best of directors, scriptwriters, best of amenities, makeup, with the best of everything. And in your next film, the benefits that you get of the best designers or directors, it depends on how your last film does. God forbid that the last film was not a success, you never get a chance again.”
However, she added that she’s not going to run away. “I am an army officer’s daughter, for me to give up and run away, that’s not going to happen. There has always been a lot more to me than just being an actress.”
Just thinking of Celina reminds me of the good old days when I enjoyed watching her spread her magic on the screen. Hope to see more of her performances soon.