Aasif Khan on changes in Bollywood: The time for Greek God looks is gone, it is time to show your acting
Actor Aasif Khan credits Manoj Bajpayee, Irrfan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui for bringing about a change in the Hindi film industry and opening up doors for more actors artistes like him.
For Aasif Khan, it was a struggle to get work as a “hero” in Hindi films when he first arrived in Mumbai back in 2010. And that he says was because people only wanted to cast actors with certain looks and the others didn’t make the cut.
“I had two phases. I went to Mumbai first in 2010. At that for me the definition of films and acting was just one person, Shah Rukh Khan. Even for my auditions I used to scenes from his films. But then for two years I got no work and I went into an introspective mode,” he tells us.
It was then the actor decided to take a step back. “I went to Jaipur and started doing theatre at the same company as Irrfan sir. After that my idea of acting changed. I didn’t want to go to Mumbai to become a hero anymore. 2010 mein main hero banne gaya tha, 2012 mein I went to become an actor. Had I stuck to my idea of becoming a hero, I wouldn’t have even reached the place I am today,” says Khan, who has starred in films like Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017), India’s Most Wanted (2019) and Pagglait (2021).
The actor rose to fame thanks to his web outings such as Mirzapur, Panchayat, Paatal Lok and the recent Human.
Crediting the audience for the acceptance toward all kinds of actors, he says, “The audience accepted and that is why actors like Manoj Bajpayee, Irrfan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui became superstars. They showed that Greek God looks ka time gaya, yeh acting dikhane ka time hai. These actors are the reason why people like me get work today. They crossed all the hurdles and opened all doors for us. So that change is there. Now the other actors also actors don’t want people to see how well he can dance but how well they can act.”
