How Jaaved Jaaferi battled typecasting

Brut India

Jaaved Jaaferi, in this interview with Brut, talked about breaking free from the typecast trap and the sentimental storylines on today’s reality shows. Today marks his birthday.

Transcript

00:00First thing people normally remember you, oh, Dhamal, wow, Adi, you're so smart.

00:04For people like me, when you're taking up supporting roles,

00:07you don't have much of a choice and you say,

00:09I don't want to change my mind and you keep sitting for five years.

00:12Hello, I'm Javed Jafri and you're watching me on Brute.

00:15In your initial days, you mentioned that you almost got typecast as the boy who dances.

00:21Then you almost got typecast as the comedian.

00:24How do you prevent getting typecast and how do you keep reinventing yourself?

00:28It's like Hindi, there's something called Bhed Chal.

00:31Yeh chal raha hai, chalo iske bhed chalo.

00:34These are the kind of films which work, so let's make these kind of films.

00:37So it happens even with actors, you know.

00:40So like Pakshay Kumar, let's face it, for a while he was the action king, you know.

00:45And then he got into this whole Priyadarshan comedy zone and people loved him in that.

00:49But for so-called supporting actors, for lead actors who are successful,

00:54they can still manipulate projects to suit how they want their career to go.

01:01Supporting actors is different.

01:05So for people like me, when you're taking up supporting roles,

01:08you don't have much of a choice and you say,

01:10I don't want to change my mind and you keep sitting for five years, it doesn't work.

01:14You know, you're out of sight, out of mind, you go on.

01:17So I feel it's important that you keep moving, strike a balance somewhere

01:21and then if you get something which can change the game for you, great.

01:27But it's luck that if you get it or not.

01:30But you can't say, I'm not doing this, I'll wait for this.

01:35You're taking a big chance.

01:37If it happens, fantastic.

01:38If it doesn't, you know, you're wasting a lot of years going by.

01:42So this Taza Khabar, I think it comes at a very good point

01:46because this whole thing was going a little funny, funny, funny

01:49and people not taking you seriously.

01:51So this is a very dark, serious role.

01:52There's nothing funny in it.

01:54And I'm really appreciative of, you know, Bhuvan and his team

02:02and even the director thinking of me in this particular role.

02:05Being out of the box and looking at me and saying that this man can perform

02:11and he will, it's a chance.

02:13Because like you said, the image is still strong.

02:16The last thing they remember or the first thing people normally remember

02:19is, wow, Adi, you're so smart.

02:22And then to break out of that.

02:27You've been at the forefront of several talent shows.

02:31What is your take on the current crop of reality shows?

02:36Without naming anything, one incident.

02:40The dancer is not that good.

02:41His mother's story is very good.

02:43So I've come across that and a lot of this happens.

02:48And I just feel it becomes very repetitive.

02:51I see the same thing.

02:52I just see the same kind of dancing happening.

02:54Fantastic talent, no doubt about it.

02:57But now it becomes like, okay, now what new?

02:59What else?

03:00Where are we going from here?

03:02And certain things have become very...

03:07Okay, it's like a scripted, formatted thing.

03:12It's not organic.

03:14So when we did Boogie Woogie, there was no script.

03:16It was totally organic.

03:18How it flowed, how we reacted, how the people, the family.

03:22And yes, if there was a certain point, we had to highlight about

03:25a certain performer coming from somewhere.

03:28We did highlight it.

03:29But it was not like, Adi, you have to zoom in on his close-up

03:31when he cries.

03:32Keep a shot of his mother crying.

03:33So we didn't.

03:35If it just happened, it happened.

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