MUMBAI : Manav Kaul has made his presence felt in both, indie and commercial film space and he says Indian cinema is going through an exciting phase and its about time people stop addressing certain actors as “character artists”.
The “Jai Gangaajal” actor says filmmakers are today giving importance to good actors in leading roles, a big change from the earlier times.
“I don’t like the term character artist. I think it is very demeaning. It sort of puts you in a box, ‘oh you are a character artist.’ It becomes difficult to break that then,” Manav said.
“Cinema has changed dramatically in the last 7-8 years. A fabulous actor like Sanjay Mishra plays lead role in ‘Aankho Dekhi’. People are taking good actors in prominent roles and they are playing strong ‘characters’, not the standard ‘hero-heroine’ material.”
The 40-year-old actor had a packed February with the Akshay Kumar starrer “Jolly LLB 2” hitting screens and the digital release of his film, “Maroon”.
Manav says, unlike mainstream cinema, independent films are stripped off monetary pressure and can solely focus on giving quality projects without worrying about anything else.
“In indie space, there is less responsibility as far as the monetary return is concerned. So you can experiment. If you have the freedom and space to experiment only then can you produce something new.
In commercial cinema, the stakes are so high, there is so much money involved that you don’t experiment, you run in a formula. There is a huge gap between our mainstream cinema and independent cinema as far as the content is concerned.”
Directed by Pulkit, “Maroon” is a psycho-thriller which was released on Netflix this month. It chronicles the story of an insomniac man who fears as his wife goes missing, and is clueless, driving him marooned in the house through the psychological traumas.
Hailing the director as a “young genius”, Manav says the decision to have an online release instead of a theatrical was a well thought move.
“It is a psychological thriller and we don’t make them much. The distribution system here doesn’t support independent films that much. We have seen in the past so many wonderful Hindi films having a theatrical release but didn’t work.
“Nobody goes and sees the film and eventually people put a tag saying ‘oh it’s a flop.’ Thank God all these digital platforms are available so that the world is our audience then.”
The actor will be next seen in Phantom film’s “Ghoul” starring Radhika Apte. Directed by Patrick Graham, Manav says it is a “never seen before” horror film with a “fantastic script” which is ready and scheduled to release sometime in the middle of the year. (AGENCIES)
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