Filmmaker Subhash Ghai recently shared why he cast Jackie Shroff in his 1983 film 'Hero' despite considering him a "bad actor". Shroff made his debut with a cameo role in Dev Anand's 'Swami Dada', but saw commercial success after starring in Ghai's film 'Hero'.
In a promo for an upcoming episode of his chat show The Invincibles Series season 2, Ghai explained that there are five types of actors. While describing the category of 'bad actors', the film director talked about Shroff. "Bad actor was Jackie Shroff in Hero. Usko jo bhi kaho vo tension mein aa jaata tha (Whatever you told him, he would get stressed)," said Ghai.
"I cast him because he was fitting into my character. His face, which held a mirror to his struggles of life, and his honesty... I knew he would learn. What if he is bad, I will teach him. He tried to learn and, in the process, he became a good actor," Ghai said.
Ghai, whose impressive repertoire of works include ‘Ram Lakhan,’ ‘Karz,’ ‘Pardes,’ ‘Taal,’ and ‘Khal Nayak’, described Anil Kapoor as a "director's actor". "Anil Kapoor is purely a director's actor. He will do whatever you ask him to do. If he did badly, it means the director did badly. He can act very badly, and he can give a great performance, but it is all on the director. He surrenders to the director's vision".
During the interview, he counted Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan in the category of great actors who uplifted a badly written scene with their performance. Speaking of Shatrughan Sinha, Ghai said he was an 'overconfident actor' and "his biggest issue was that he was never on time".
The filmmaker directed Shroff and Kapoor in the 1989 film 'Ram Lakhan', among others. With Shatrughan Sinha, the filmmaker teamed up for films such as 'Kalicharan' (1976) and 'Vishwanath' (1978), among others.
