Rajniesh Duggall: Bollywood is like a joint family, there are fights, love, some kids fight amongst each other, and then patch up

Actor Rajniesh Duggall started his career with a horror film, 1920, quite unconventional for a newcomer in films, but it proved to be a hit. Having spent 12 years in an industry with which he had no prior connections, he got to learn a lot. And one of them is that camps and lobbying are a reality.

“Obviously, one can’t deny that. Once you get into them, or sign some films with them, automatically a lot of things are taken care of, otherwise you have to sort of khud haath-pair maarne padhte hain, it is your own hustle and fight. That’s also fun, and the beauty of it,” he says.

Duggall reveals that since he signed his first film with Vikram Bhatt, he became a part of his camp, and there came a point when people mistook that he won’t do other kind of films too apart from thriller or horror. “People thought ‘yeh toh Bhatt camp ka hai, yeh nahi karega’, but that took me four-five years to get out of. Actually not get out, but to sort of have no tag on me, that I will only do specific kind of films. At the moment, I am glad I have projects like Bajirao Mastani the musical, and others in different genres,” tells us the 40-year-old. 

So is being a part of any camp both an advantage and disadvantage? Duggall says though camps help, it gives rise to a lot of misconceptions, “A lot of people say ‘we don’t know if he will do our film or not’, even though I feel I am decent, modest and don’t have any attitude or ego issues. But people outside think this, and form a bubble around an actor ‘he will have that, let’s not call him’. From your own side you place yourself out there and put efforts. I think it also teaches you a lot, it taught me to open up. Initially, I was not that open, my thought process was not that broad.”

The existence of such camps and whether it puts those outside at a disadvantage is a debate that was raked after actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s untimely death. Ask Duggall what he feels about all this, including and if Bollywood is indeed a big family, he says, “I think it’s a very sensitive, real life topic. I didn’t know Sushant really well, but was fond of his work. As a person, he was humble and down to earth, from what I could get to know after meeting him two-three times. I feel there should be justice for him. But on the other side, I feel Bollywood is like a joint family, there are fights, love also, some kids fight amongst each other, and then you patch up too. Some are put on a bigger podium, some are not, but even in that if you outshine tomorrow, you will automatically come up. All I can say is you have got to keep doing your bit and move forward. What happened was obviously not a good thing, there should be justice.”

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