Despite Kickass Debut At 30 & Plethora Of Strong Roles, Shreyas Talpade Is Still Underutilised
One of them is Shreyas Talpade -- who has proved himself as a strong actor with a variety of roles. He is capable of doing so much more, yet he remains to be underutilized. Bollywood has failed him.
Bollywood has a plethora of great actors but only a few of them make a mark and a name for themselves. Not every actor gets his due recognition in this cut-throat world of Bollywood. Despite their unbelievably terrific performances, sometimes the talent never quite sees the light of fame.
One of them is Shreyas Talpade -- who has proved himself as a strong actor with a variety of roles. He is capable of doing so much more, yet he remains to be underutilized.
He once said that only 10 percent of people in Bollywood are genuine. He also opened up about being backstabbed by his own friends in the industry.
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"I found out that there are certain actors who are insecure about sharing screen space with me and don¡¯t want me in a film. I have done certain films for friends only keeping their interests in mind but then I have been back-stabbed by the same friends. Then there are friends who go ahead and make films without including me, which makes one question if they are even friends at all."
"Actually, in the industry, 90% of the people are just acquaintances, there are only 10% who actually feel happy when you do well. The egos are so fragile here," he said.
Do you know he made his Bollywood debut at the age of 30? His story is equally astounding as Pravin Tambe's. Shreyas had auditioned for the role of 17-19-year-old boy at the age of 29.
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It was 17 years ago that Shreyas Talpade became an overnight sensation as a deaf and mute cricketer in his debut film Iqbal. With no dialogues in his movie, he made a roaring debut proving he could act a lot with his eyes too.
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Talpade made his debut with sports drama Iqbal in 2005. He started the shooting of the film, a day after his wedding and didn't get to meet his wife for at least a month and a half. Do you know he was even asked to cancel his wedding because Iqbal couldn't be married?
When he told about his wedding to wife Deepti to director Nagesh Kukunoor, he asked him to cancel the wedding because "Iqbal couldn't be married".
"Here I was, a middle-class guy whose wedding cards had gone out, being told to cancel it; I didn¡¯t know what to do. It was after a lot of convincing, and assuring him that I would keep the wedding under wraps, that he let me have a day off," he told TOI.
In order to not miss the opportunity, he kept his wedding hush-hush. Not only that, his wife attended the screening of the movie as the director's sister.
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Before Iqbal, Shreyas Talpade was doing Marathi soap operas and stage shows across Maharashtra.
After Iqbal, he did some great films like Dor, in which he played the comic role of a behroopiya, a man with many disguises. The film and his performance were applauded by one and all -- from movie critics to audiences.
He then went on to feature in movies like Apna Sapna Money Money, Dil Dosti Etc, Om Shanti Om and Aggar among others. With movies like Bombay To Bangkok, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Golmaal Returns, Aage Se Right, Golmaal 3, Housefull 2 and Golmaal Again, he got typecast into comedy roles; and so, the opportunities kept getting bleak with time.
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"Suddenly people forgot that I can do serious roles too. They forgot that I started my career with a serious film. I won¡¯t say it is unfortunate. Maybe that¡¯s how it was probably destined to be, and I kept flowing with that," he was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
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Biases, rejections, hypocrisy - Shreyas Talpade went through it all.
"There are certain films of mine which bombed at the box office and there are certain films of certain actors which didn¡¯t work but yet those actors keep getting work from big banners and you wonder how? My films bombed at the box office and certain people came and told me, ¡®Yaar teri picture pit gayi toh agli picture ka price kum hoga.¡¯ Then there are certain actors whose films bombed one after the other and yet you see them being signed by fantastic directors and you wonder why? This is the disparity that I don¡¯t like. This is some kind of hypocrisy. Just say it in the face that you want that actor for something else and not for his performance. This is very unfair. You cannot have a separate set of rules for certain people and separate rules for somebody else," he told News18.
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He even thought of quitting his acting career.
In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, he revealed he had once even thought of quitting acting because of the low phase in his career. "It takes you into self-doubt ki 'Mai kya kar raha, mai chod deta hoon yaar, kuch aur kar leta hoon¡¯. Then you think ki ¡®mujhe aur kuch aata hu nahi hain. Mai aur kya karunga? (he laughs). Then you go back to your basics. That is one thing I have learned that ¡®go back to your basics.'"
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He even donned a producer's hat for Poshter Boyz under his home production banner, Affluence Movies. The Marathi film was remade in Hindi as Poster Boys and Shreyas made his directorial debut with this film.
We are glad that he got to play the role of Pravin Tambe because he seemed to be cut out for the role, only because of his yet another impeccable and earnest performance. We hope Shreyas Talpade bags more great roles to prove he is capabilities and showcase his talent.
(For more news and updates from the world of celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment, and let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments below.)
Garima Satija leads the Entertainment vertical of Indiatimes. A storyteller at heart who enjoys the thrill of writing, she is sometimes found daydreaming about living the lives of movie characters. Also, she hates talking about herself in the third person.
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