Indian veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah recently said that Indian actors have always “been dying” to go to Hollywood just like “Pakistani actors are dying to come to India.”
Bollywood A-listers such as Irrfan Khan, Deepika Padukone, and Priyanka Chopra have taken on Hollywood projects but Naseer thinks their new found glory won’t last for long.
“Humesha se hi tha excitement (It was always there). Hindi actors have always been dying to go to Hollywood. They would give their arms to go there. It’s like Pakistani actors are dying to come to India,” he said in a recent interview with Hindustan Times.
“Pakistani people consider Bollywood to be the ultimate! I go there and they say ‘waah kya films banai hai’,” he added.
Naseer doesn’t seem too supportive of fellow Indian actors either. “These people who are tom-tomming their entry into Hollywood are all going to come back very soon because Hollywood has no place for an Asian to play a lead. It’s a one-off thing.”
Shah feels the only thing Bollywood takes from Hollywood is the extravagance it paints, rather than backing films which carry a strong social message.
“We have always been aping Hollywood but only in the superficial manner. The glitz and the glamour! The fact is that mainstream Hollywood will still back a film like Whiplash, Nightcrawler, King’s Speech, and Spotlight. Which of our films would back a daring film like Spotlight? Not one. That’s the difference between us and Hollywood,” he said.
Across the border, Naseeruddin Shah has appeared in the action-adventure film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), Monsoon Wedding (2001), The Great New Wonderful (2005).
