Hero by Character

“Getting praise for our work is a great feeling for actors like us,who have struggled for almost 10 years to get noticed,” says Siddiqui,who was also praised for his brief role in Peepli Live. He will soon be seen in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur and Reema Kagti’s Talaash.

Director Rajkumar Gupta believes the prominence to the supporting cast has been brought about,thanks to the changing landscape of Indian cinema. “Today,subjects are real or at least quasi-real. In such a scenario,you need the presence of regular people in the lives of main protagonists,” feels Gupta,who has directed Aamir and No One Killed Jessica (NOKJ). Bejoy Nambiar,the director of Shaitan,agrees it is the content in films due to which,the focus has shifted beyond the protagonists. “Character actors have always been present in Hindi films,but they were just few and far between. Today,every film has characters that are crucial to the plot,” he says.

The corporatisation of Bollywood and the emergence of multiplexes have been key reasons for felicitating more actors into the fold,says Neel Bhoopalam,who played prominent roles in NOKJ and Shaitan. “There is scope and space to do a lot more films and in various canvasses. And it also allows actors like me,who are not in a position to demand lead roles,to experiment with a variety of roles,” he says.

The rise of character actors may be new,but the industry has witnessed a range of excellent character actors over the years. While Pran spearheaded the brigade right from the early ’40s,others such as Om Prakash,Iftekhar,Balraj Sahni,Lalita Pawar,Rehman,AK Hangal,Sriram Lagoo and Rohini Hattangadi lent credibility to this moniker. “However,it was the ’70s and ’80s that stereotyped the character actor,” feels Gupta,adding,“When a certain actor was praised for the role of an inspector,he was cast as the same in 10 other films.”

The boundary between lead and character actors is also blurred. A case in point being Deepak Dobriyal,who started out as the sidekick to Langda Tyagi in Omkara. He played the lead in Daayen Ya Baayen and Teen They Bhai. Kunaal Roy Kapur (of Delhi Belly fame) is the protagonist in Kabir Sadanand’s Project 36.

Siddiqui,however,has a word of caution. “The importance given to the character actors may have increased,but it is mostly by independent filmmakers. The big-budget projects still woo the stars,” he says.