Aftab Shivdasani says camps exist in Bollywood: ‘Karan Johar is a distant relative but I have never been close to anyone’

At a time when the inner workings of Bollywood are under scrutiny, Aftab Shivdasani has said that camps have always existed in the industry. He said that he purposely refrained from being a part of any of them, choosing, instead, to maintain cordial relations with every producer.

In an interview with The Times of India, Aftab said, “This groupism was called campism in the early 2000s where people were saying, ‘This one belongs to YRF, Bhatt or other camps.’ I was never subjected to this as I always worked with a wide spectrum of producers and I was friendly to all but never close. Therefore, whenever they had a role and they would call me then I would go and meet them.”

Despite doing multiple films with Vikram Bhatt and Ram Gopal Varma, Aftab was never a part of their camps, he said. “It’s basically how you conduct yourself and I have been friendly to all. Karan (Johar) is even a distant relative of mine but I have never been close to anyone,” he said, adding that he did not like the idea of being ‘owned’ by a production house and would rather take charge of his own career.

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Aftab worked as a child artiste on many popular films such as Mr India, Shahenshah and ChaalBaaz before making his debut in a leading role with Mast in 1999. He has starred in films such as Kasoor, Awara Paagal Deewana, Masti, Hungama and 1920: The Evil Returns.

Currently, Aftab is shooting for the Zee5 series Poison 2, amid the Covid-19 pandemic. On June 30, he took to Instagram to share a behind-the-scenes video of getting his hair done and shooting with restrictions. In his caption, he wrote, “..And so it re-begins. Time to work with life than against it. Shoot for Poison 2 resumes. Need your positive wishes. All safety measures in place. #wewillwin #poison2 #zee5.”

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