In this special candid conversation actor Jimmy Shergill spoke to Subhash K Jha about his 30-year career, and so much more!
The super-talented Jimmy Shergill has no regrets about doing any of his films, the good back or ugly. “I might have regretted at that point of time because you feel that you did a film at the cost of doing something else you could have chosen something else because certain kind of promises were made to you. But when you start shooting they were not up to the mark. But I feel today when I look back I think every project every scene every film every song is taught you something and no matter how bad the endproduct, it has taught you something and probably made you what you are today and I think I take full responsibility for anything wrong I might have done earlier on in my career. But I think I just followed my instinct and if I liked the story it didn’t matter whether there was a very big producer attached to it, or if there was a new producer or a new director I just followed my heart I just followed my instincts and just went ahead and completed that film it’s just that whether it was a good experience. When I look back at it today I think 98% of the films that I did were good experiences and if not they ended up teaching me a lot. I think it’s very difficult to kind of sum up almost thirty years that is three decades in one interview. But yeah, it’s been it’s been fun. When I look back I think there’s so much life has taught me so much I’ve got from this industry , so much of fun I have had working on some really beautiful projects with some really beautiful nice people. Quite a few of them are like today friends for life . But I still say that I’m not the kind of person who keeps looking back into the rearview mirror. I just earn from my experiences and move on.”
Jimmy who has worked with Neeraj Pandey on the big screen in Special 26 now on the OTT in Sikandar Ka Muqaddar. “I don’t think I see much of difference. I’ve done films with Neeraj Pandey which were like theatrical releases and at the same time we’ve now done something for Netflix, so the team is the same the unit is the same so I don’t see any kind of readjustment or anything like that for me as an actor. It’s just the format. I mean that’s a film that releases in the theater and this is on your mobile or whatever . But I think very soon or maybe it’s already started I think but there will be films that are that are probably produced by the OTT , but first they’ll release in the cinema hall then they’ll probably come on the OTT. There are a lot of films that are being made today on the OTT which audiences are watching and saying this should have been there in the theaters. It’s happened to a few films of mine in the recent past and I think that’s the way it’s going to be in the near future .At least I think so.”
Having worked in so many different kinds of films which are Jimmy’s personal game-changers? “For me I think the landmark films would be obviously Maachis because I started with that film and then Mohabbatein which kick-started a new phase for me and then at every step even though I had a lot of other films which did commercially really well but then the films that made a difference were films like Haasil , Munna Bhai MBBS , Yahan then there was Tanu Weds Manu and A Wednesday and Saheb Bibi Gangster. I feel there are a lot of films that that from time to time kept changing people’s mindset about my abilities. So with A Wednesday suddenly people said that oh my God he can do an angry young man also and before that with Munna Bhai MBBS they were like, oh he can do intense roles also otherwise we thought he’s a chocolate boy. Haasil was again a film where suddenly people said that you know he can do this kind of work also so I think yeah I think there are quite a few of them. I think I try my level-best to do every single character in a way that it’s interesting and different from what we’ve done before.”
