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Sharat Saxena Says He Was Treated Like A Punching Bag; 'Film Industry Is Not Friendly To Tough Guys'
Veteran actor Sharat Saxena recently opened up on his journey in Indian cinema which spans over five decades. He said that he was treated like a punching bag in films for 33 years as he was mostly cast in villainous roles. Saxena said that his job was to get beaten up by the heroes to make them look good.
While speaking with Rediff, the actor said, "Because I was a muscular person, I used to get work as an action character. I used to do a lot of fights. I used to get beaten up by the heroes. In Kaala Patthar, I was in the introduction sequence for three heroes (Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor and Shatrughan Sinha). Every hero would come, beat me up, establish himself as the hero and carry on with the film. I was a punching bag of the film, and that was the story of my life for the first 35 years of my career."
Sharat said that the Indian film industry doesn't consider tough guys as good actors and assume that guys who wear kurta-pajama and look soft and nice are good actors.
"Every hero wants to beat up a tough guy! I have spent 50 years in this line and it has been mainly a story of survival. And that is still going on. For some reason, I don't know why, the Indian film industry is not friendly towards tough guys. They do not promote toughness in actors. Tough guys are not considered good actors. Good actors are supposed to be guys who wear kurta-pajama and look soft and nice. People like me are not in that category. I do not like this aspect of the film industry," the entertainment portal quoted Saxena as saying.
In the same interview, the Badshah actor also recalled a rumour that Raza Murad spread about him in the industry, which ended up costing him work.
Sharat said that when he got dissatisfied with the kind of roles he was getting, he moved to South India, where he also played the villain in several films. The actor said that one day, he learnt that Aamir Khan had recommended his name for a role in his film Ghulam, but nobody contacted him because they thought he had quit Bollywood.
"Even though Aamir had suggested my name, they did not contact me because somebody had told them that I had shifted to Chennai. That person was Raza Murad. He had spread this rumour that I did not live in Bombay anymore. That's why they did not contact me," the actor recalled.
Talking about how he bagged Ghulam, Sharad shared, "I remember I went to Aamir's house, where he was there along with Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt and Shekhar Kapur, and they narrated the role to me. Anjum Rajabali, who was the writer, would come to me every day for the first 10 days to see how I was doing it. After 10 days, he saw the rushes and then told me, 'Sir, while writing a script, I normally have an image in mind. But you have erased that image and put yourself there.' I said, 'Thank you for saying that to me. You made my day.' That's how I did Ghulam."
He further added, "Aamir had seen a film which I had done earlier, called Boxer. So he felt I was the right candidate for the role."
Sharat Saxena was last seen essaying the role of a tiger hunter in Vidya Balan's recent release Sherni which premiered on Amazon Prime.
