Ranvir Shorey on anti-Bollywood sentiment and why boycott calls won’t work: ‘People sense there’s injustice here but…’

It is hard to tell if Ranvir Shorey is making a statement in anger, for it is usually followed a laugh. When he talks about his role being reduced in projects because of insecurity, he says it with a smile; when he inss he can’t play politics in the industry, he jokes that even his team can’t do that on his behalf.
But beyond the humour, Ranvir Shorey means business. On the sidelines of the premiere of his latest release Midday Meeal, the actor — son of filmmaker KD Shorey — spoke to about his career, challenges and why he believes the boycott Bollywood trend that keeps reappearing on social media will eventually burn out.
Edited excerpts:

You have completed more than two decades in the industry. How has the journey been?
Ups and downs, but at every point one has to keep struggling. I remember somebody saying that success is a moving target. You have to keep up with the treadmill otherwise it throws you off.
Is it exhausting?
Not really. I am not doing the same thing, at least according to me, I don’t know how others look at it. With every roles, my attempt has been to do something different. That keeps it very fresh, challenging and engaging. It gets exhausting when you are doing the same thing.
Was there a phase?
Not really, never. I am saying for other people! (laughs) Who are doing the same thing, all the time. For me, every project has a new excitement, a new challenge. An opportunity to see something new.

The audience feels you are not seen enough, it is almost like a complaint.
Yes, I am happy with that. I don’t want to be one of those people who the audience has seen too much of. Because a good actor always knows his exit. The day people start feeling they are seeing too much of me, that they are tired of me, it’ll be my cue to move on to do something else. I would like to be judicious about the how much I am doing, the kind of work I am doing. Of course, lead roles and such are welcome. Now why I don’t get those, you have to ask the filmmakers, not me.
A lot of times you have opened up about how you don’t feel challenged with the parts you are offered.
What I meant was, the couple of mainstream films or series that I have been a part of, where I did well in the parts I did and in the subsequent sequels, I didn’t get meatier roles. Sometimes it even got cut off, for some reason. I suspect those reasons to be just insecurities.

Your character was cut off?
Yes, there have been sequels where the first film did well but in the second, for some reason or the other, you get chopped off. The film business is a very political place, I have always said this. It is not just merit and talent which works here. There is a lot of other backroom stuff that happens here. I am not very good with that, neither is my management team sadly (laughs)!
In 2020, during the outsider vs insider debate, you had raised this concern a lot that it’s time to democratise the industry.
Streaming platforms have done that to some extent. But it is just that… the whole mainstream Bollywood machinery is so huge, it is very difficult to stand up to it for anyone, forget me. Streaming platforms have worked as a pressure cooker whle– they have let off some of the steam. But the pressure cooker still exs.
You had famously said that there is a ‘club’ in the industry which only caters to the top of the pyramid.
There is, but it hasn’t changed. I don’t see any hope. A lot of people talk about the boycott calls, but it is not going to change anything. These people… How many years will you play boycott-boycott? Five years, ten years, fifteen years? These people can sustain themselves for generations. You will tire out; your children will tire out. They will still be at it.

Does the anti-Bollywood sentiment worry you?Not really. Whenever there is injustice happening somewhere, there will be people who will feel anger and angst about it. A lot of times it is misplaced, a lot of times they don’t know how to go about it. I think the anti-Bollywood sentiment is there because they kind of sense that some injustice is happening here, but they don’t know because it is all behind the curtains.
Then the way to do it is not watching films?Not watch or just vent out on social media. For all you know secretly they are watching it on streaming platforms! They are just not going to the theatres and saying, ‘I will wait for it to come on streaming platforms.’
People also came to watch Brahmastra (despite boycott calls), it is a film that came under fire, but people still watched it.Well, I didn’t.