New Delhi: As Akshay Kumar’s Welcome to the Jungle hits theatres, the veteran Indian actor reflects on how actors have transformed over the decades.
The action-comedy stars young actors like Disha Patani and Jacqueline Fernandez, along with veteran Raveena Tandon, marking her and Kumar’s reunion after nearly two decades.
In an interview with IANS, Kumar shared his experience working with actors from the 90s, 2000s and the contemporary generation. He added that they are all good actors with not much difference, but he pointed out that the younger generations are not willing to take major risks, whereas earlier actors were more willing to experiment.
“I would say that today’s actresses are more prepared than we used to be. They know everything. They have learnt a lot before entering the industry,” he said to IANS.
Filmmaker Ahmed Khan added that earlier actors used to be raw and directors had to teach them from step one, but now they are “fundamentally correct” or trained.
“Not a lot of multi-starrers are made these days because they are ready to adapt to the fact that why should we work in a multi-starrer,” he said.
Welcome to the Jungle boasts a star cast, including actors from all generations such as Raveena Tandon, Jacqueline Fernandez, Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal, and more. A similar never-ending star cast will be seen in the multi-starrer Dhamaal 4, with Ajay Devgn, Anjali Anand, Riteish Deshmukh, Javed Jaffrey, Arshad Warsi and Esha Gupta in key roles. Kumar shared that working in multi-starrers is a learning journey.
“If we see, Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Shashi Kapoor, and Vinod Khanna, they all used to do films together. I think, if we can do multi-starrers, it will be good for the industry,” Kumar added.
The 1980 film Shaan, directed by Ramesh Sippy, starred A-listers Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Shashi Kapoor, Sunil Dutt and Rakhee Gulzar together. Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha and Zeenat Aman starred in Salim–Javed’s Dostana in 1980. Then came Naseeb (1981), directed by Manmohan Desai, which was a multi-starrer with actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Rishi Kapoor, Hema Malini and Reena Roy, whereas the iconic Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) had Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor as the titular characters.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)