Veteran actor Jackie Shroff has a list of massy films to his credit. The actor also carries the same image off screen, what with him using the word ‘Bhidu’ regularly during media interviews as well as normal conversations with fans.
But contrary to his image, Shroff has emerged as a major supporter of the non-mainstream or arty content that can be found aplenty on OTT platforms. He spoke his mind about this in a recent interview with a magazine while showing support to the parallel Hindi cinema that saw its heydays in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“There was a time when there were no cinema halls for ‘good films’ as they were referred to,” said Shroff. “I mean films like Saaransh (1984), Arth (1982), Aakrosh (1980). We used to go to early morning shows to watch them. After that, the blockbusters used to play. There were no cinema halls for those kinds of films. Now on OTT, you have everything. Everyone is getting work and every kind of film is being made. We’re lucky that OTT is there and so much content is coming in.”
While highlighting why we should look at the OTT era as a blessing, Shroff added, “As humans, we went from street plays, and stage plays to musicals. There is an audience for everything. It kept growing and now we can pick up a smartphone and you have all the information on it. I can show my TV series or films to many people and I don’t have to have one shop. Emotions don’t change even when platforms do, so let’s take it as a blessing that after television, OTT has come.”
On the work front, Shroff was last seen in the previous month in Anant Mahadevan’s Life Is Good, which also starred Rajit Kapoor.
