Opening Doorz

By Martin D’Souza | Opening Doorz Editorial | January 23, 2017

Casting directors the new joke in town!
Not many years ago, we heard of directors making it to homes of actresses on the pretext of giving them work. Those were days when SMS and Whatsapp were no yet thought of. A pager message or a call on the landline was what set up the meetings.

Producers were not far behind. The casting couch was something everyone said never existed. But a majority of the actresses, time and again, have stated that the casting couch does exist. But who will talk about it?

Thanks to no one willing to talk about it, we now have another emboldened breed in the film industry who are moving rapidly into the private spaces (read Whatsapp and Facebook and even homes) of actors.

Any heroine that catches the fancy of these so-called casting directors/agencies becomes the soft-target. These overnight casting directors think it is their heritage to torment a woman with constant calls informing them about a possible role in a film with a production house they may or may not have been tied up with.

And that, my friend, is the tragedy. The girls don’t even know if what these guys are telling them is true and are scared of putting them off for fear of jeopardizing their career. ‘They are damned if they do, they are damned if they don’t!’

The directors of yore at least had some standing, in that they knew they would direct a movie or the producers knew they had the clout to get an actor in. But casting directors? Do they even have a strong foothold in the industry? How many of these agencies or individuals are putting our women in awkward positions?

It’s time the industry wakes up and takes cognizance of this bullying that goes in the name of role giving.

We have able men in this industry who are MARD enough to take up for the girls who are being harassed.

Jolly is Arshad and Arshad is Jolly!

Imagine Rocky without Sylvester Stallone or Terminator without Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now imagine Jolly LLB 2 without Arshad Warsi! I cannot. OK, he has a cameo, but why not the whole role? How did Akshay Kumar walk in into this movie?

For me, Jolly is Arshad and Arshad is Jolly. Period!

After his performances in Munnabhai and Ishqiya, Arshad Warsi packed a mean punch in Jolly LLB as Jolly, the underdog lawyer, who took on the might of Rajpal (Boman Irani). This Meerut-bred lawyer hit the highway when he saw loopholes in a hit-and-run case involving the scion of an influential business family who is let free for lack of evidence.

Arshad brought that angst and honesty in his portrayal of Jolly. There was sincerity in his approach to the role. That was the USP of the film.

Agreed Akshay is a good actor, but Jolly is Arshad and Arshad is Jolly!

Can you short-circuit a movie by getting Akshay to play Circuit in a Munnabhai sequel?

THINK!

Aamir Khan and his perfect timing
Raees releases on January 25. Film Awards for this year will begin only next January. If, however, Shah Rukh Khan pulls of an award-winning performance, it will be long forgotten by the time the Awards mela begins: we still have 11 months to go and many good films lined up for release this year.

SRK will have to come with a scorching performance for his ‘baniye ka dimaag and miyanbhai ki daring’ character to hold till next January!

In that respect, Aamir Khan is shrewd. He times his films just a month before the Awards functions to ensure that his portrayal is still fresh in the mind of the jury, and walks away with the Best Actor Award.

I’m a joking!

Looking forward to Raees and Nawazuddin Siddiqui!

Also read: Chauranga, Bollywood Diaries and Moh Maya Money