Divya
Actor Ranvir Shorey, who has played excellent roles in many films gets real about the big Bollywood life that has been under media scrutiny of late. In an exclusive with Pinkvilla, Shorey talks about the ‘Bollywood Gang’, nepotism and being an outsider.
The actor also opens up about the time he was extremely isolated upon choice after a rough break off when powerful people apparently lied about him to the media.
Shorey tweets, “‘The Gang’ is essentially a mutually beneficial alliance of a few powerful, corrupt, crafty old men, and a few second-generation younger producers who have inherited film empires. Their objective is to have control over the top of the pyramid and have pliable stars.”
On being asked upon why he isolated himself from the industry, Shorey mentioned, “I had a very public breakup at that time. This was a fallout (with Bhatts) of that. They were very powerful people who lied about me in the press and then what followed was professional isolation, social isolation and I was under a lot of stress, it was so bad that my brother asked me to get away from it for some time. I then did that. And then I came back, for two years, I did not get many films and whatever I got was small roles. Then, I had to do TV again, did The Great Indian Comedy Show, and then took one step at a time to be where I am today. In this journey, no big production or banner helped me. It has been a struggle.”
When asked about the ongoing insider vs outsider debate, Ranvir says, “I don’t think the debate should be about outsider or insider, it should be about how all the power at the top of the pyramid of Bollywood is controlled by a bunch of six people. There is no accountability. That is the problem. The insider and outsider debate is waste of time, don’t get into this because there are many insiders who have been thrown out as outsiders and many outsiders who have been taken in as insiders, what you need to see is when people abuse their power.”
“Problems are fixed numbers of theatres, and screens and when that is controlled by a few people and others left at their mercy, isn’t that an unjust system? That is the problem. These people have that power, and they have been abusing it. Because they have power over the theatrical distribution system, they have power over media. Half of it also stems from media as well who give in to power to have easy access to stars,” he continues.
