I did not get work due to my short height, I regretted being rejected in Sacred Games and Sanju – Sharib Hashmi

No work despite National Award winning film

When asked the reason for not getting much work despite doing a hit film like ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ in 2012 and receiving a lot of praise for ‘Filmistan’, Sharib laughs and says, ‘If I knew the reason, I would not have let this happen. Many questions have no answers because two films were released. One (Jab Tak Hai Jaan) was a hit and the other (Filmistan) won a National Award. I myself was nominated for many awards, won many awards, yet I myself could not understand why I was not offered roles or why I was not selected in the ones that were offered. Maybe it was my fate. God wanted to test me, because I also signed some films, which were independent films, in which I had the lead role, but some of them got shelved, some took time to release, even films like Nakkash, Phullu were released, but there was no promotion, so what can one do in such a situation?’

Regret of rejection in Bajrangi, Sanju, Sacred Games

On the question of handling that difficult phase, Sharib says, ‘I think a little positive. I am a little thick skinned. Anyway, we face so many rejections every day that we prepare ourselves for such things. In my view, I was successful even then because I was doing films, but they were not reaching the people. I had decided to leave a good job and make acting my livelihood and I had achieved that, this was my success.’ Did you feel sad about being rejected in any film? On this he/she said, ‘There are many films. Sanju, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Sacred Games, I was almost selected in these, so I was very sad when I was rejected.’

The dream of becoming an actor was buried

Sharib decided to try his/her hand at acting quite late. he/she says about this, ‘I wanted to become an actor since childhood but I felt that my personality was not that of an actor. I had seen actors and stars closely, all of them were tall and beautiful and I had a complex about my height for a long time, so I buried the dream of becoming an actor as soon as I grew up. But when I started writing for TV channels, they started making me act. When we used to make funny, comedy shows, they would say that you do this role, do its dubbing and I used to enjoy that a lot. Our show of making people scapegoats became a big hit. This is how I came into acting. While I was in job, I did a scene in Slumdog Millionaire, did a small role in Haal-e-Dil, even then I had not thought of making acting my profession. It took me a lot of time to overcome the complex about my looks and to decide that this is what I want to do, but when I got the confidence, it was tremendous that I have so much talent that all my other shortcomings can be hidden.

JK delivered to people’s homes and pockets

These days Sharib is busy shooting for the third season of Family Man. he/she considers his/her character JK in this show very close to his/her heart. Sharib said, ‘The character of JK is very close to my heart. It is because of JK that I have got a place in people’s homes and their pockets, so this role is very special for me. The work that I thought Filmistan’s Sunny Arora would do, was done by JK. Sunny gave me recognition in the industry but the entire credit for bringing me to the common people goes to Family Man.’