It’s always a pleasure to interview Jackie Shroff. After all, he’s unpretentious to the core and ever so warm. Being someone who gets into a conversational mode rather than sticking to the regular Q&A mode (like most actors), he doesn’t allow any dialogue to turn mundane. It’s no different this time around as well.
For an actor, who has had a major high this year with son Tiger Shroff making a successful debut with Heropanti, Jaggu dada (as he is fondly called till date!), is soon going to surprise you with his villainous act in Farah Khan‘s Happy New Year. While this film is the biggest release of the year (and so was Dhoom 3 last year, where he was seen in a pivotal special appearance), Jackie has also been seen in a few unflattering outings that haven’t quite suited his stature. In fact, he also seemed like he was doing these films as favour to friends.
Ask him if he regrets that and he readily bares his heart out:
“See, aisa hota hai ki kuch friends aate hain aur agar kehte hain ki agar meri film kar do toh zindagi ban jaayegi, phir main naa nahi keh sakta. Aisa nahi hona chahiye ki aage jaakar woh bolein ‘yaar, kya dosti dikhayi’. Someone comes and says that my son has to be launched so please do my film. Now, I don’t have a hard and fast rule ki main kisi ke saath ya uske liye kaam nahi karoonga. Whatever I would do though, I would do that with sincerity.”
What does his son Tiger have to say about his overall body of work? He says:
“Other than the obvious ones like Parinda, Ram Lakhan and Hero, he loves them all, right from films like Shiva Ka Insaaf to Police Officer to Azaad Desh Ke Ghulam. Ye sab hindustaan ki filmein hai isliye 80% country mein aaj bhi yeh chalta hai. My distributors tell me that woh picture aaj ki picure ke saath compare kar lo toh aaj bhi dhandha karegi! I am glad that he likes my work and many such films that are attached to the real India.”
Considering Tiger loves many of his dad’s movies, it would be interesting to see Tiger in similar masala desi flicks in today’s day and age!
Read more about their father-son camaraderie here.