Aamir Ali on entering Bollywood: It would have been easier if I was a newcomer than being someone who has done TV
Actor Aamir Ali talks about his struggle to get over his image from the small screen world, and more
It was a while ago when actor Aamir Ali decided to move out of the world of small screen, and find new avenues for work. What he didn’t envision was that it would take around two years for his first film to hit the big screen. The actor says people in the industry would make him talk to their family, but were not ready to take a chance with him.
After spending over a decade working in television, the actor was fighting his own image as a ‘TV star’ while exploring work in Bollywood. He is known for starring in shows such as Woh Rehne Waali Mehlon Ki, F.I.R, and Dilli Wali Thakur Gurls. He last appeared on the small screen in Navrangi Re! In 2019, following which he has done some web shows and was seen on the big screen this year with the film Faraaz.
“When I took a break. I thought it would take a break for a year or something, and in the middle of something OTT emerged as a big player. When I started meeting people, everybody was very welcoming and warm. They were very nice, but no one gave me work,” Ali says.
The actor reveals that producers used to make him talk to their mother and sisters as they had seen him on TV for the longest time. “But that wasn’t getting converted to work. And you tend to feel low during this wait. You think something is not right, or wonder if you did TV for long. But it is a phase and soon you start owning up,” he shares.
And that is exactly what Ali started doing, as he admits, “I accepted that I am a TV star, trying to shift gears. I realised that TV is the thing which has got me here, and getting me to the meetings. I had confidence that eventually someone will see the actor in me, and give me a chance. That person was (filmmaker) Hansal Mehta who gave me Faraaz. And now things have started falling into place.”
The actor is glad that his patience paid off well, and now doesn’t mind people judging an actor for the medium he or she comes from.
“I don’t look at it negatively. But people have this thought. They say something, but don’t do it. There is a thought process that people will go to watch a Shah Rukh Khan film on the big screen because he is coming after a long time, but skip a good film, thinking they will watch it later,” he says, adding, “But I don’t look at it as I have been a better headspace since the time I started owning things up. But it is very difficult. And it was more difficult for me because I was a star on television.”
That’s because people were not ready to give him character roles. “They were not giving me serious projects as it was very difficult for them to accept me in that. I thought that if I was a newcomer, it would have been better for me. TV was a mountain which I climbed, and now I am climbing a new mountain, and I am enjoying myself now,” he ends.
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