Jackie Shroff says he never differentiated between lead and supporting roles: ‘I don’t say no’
Senior actor Jackie Shroff in a new interview talked about how films experimented with him in time.
Asserting that he has never rejected a film, Jackie also said that he doesn’t differentiate between lead and small roles in films. He cited an example of Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai starrer-Devdas and called his role as Chunnilal ‘fantastic.’
Jackie Shroff has been in the film industry for over four decades now. He has over 220 films under his credit, across 13 languages approximately in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Konkani, Odia, Gujarati and English. In Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas, Jackie essayed the role of Shah Rukh’s friend, Chunnilal and earned praise even with his limited screen time.
Recently, Filmfare asked Jackie about the kind of roles he is looking forward to in the current times. Jackie said, “I really have no idea. The industry has experimented with me a lot because filmmakers know that I don’t say no to roles.
I never thought of differentiating between lead roles and smaller roles. For example, in Devdas, the titular role is played by Shah Rukh Khan. But I had a fantastic role in it as Chunnilal. In Mission Kashmir, Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik Roshan were both heroes and I was the bad guy with only seven scenes.”
“So I’ve been experimenting all the time. It never bothered me that if I don’t sing a song I’m not a hero anymore. I feel like if I’m a part of a film that’s more important. Like the chair you’re sitting on, if you cut one leg the whole thing falls. So you have to be that one leg. That’s the important part. The value that you add is important,” he added during the conversation.
Jackie was last seen in Phone Bhoot and Life’s Good. He was last seen in Janhvi Kapoor’s last outing, Mili where he appeared in a cameo role. The actor will be next seen in the upcoming film, Baap which marks his reunion with Mithun Chakraborty, Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt.