Rohit Roy is not only a renowned face on television but in films too. Having started his career with the popular TV series, Swabhimaan, the actor has achieved success over the years and has shown immense promise as an actor. In a quick chat with StarWeek, he talks about direction, equation with his brother Ronit Roy and more.
There’s no challenging the fact that Rohit Roy is a hugely talented star. The actor, who was last seen some years ago in Shootout At Lokhandwala (SAL), is currently taking it slow and awaiting a meaty role to come his way. In fact, that’s precisely why he has been missing from the big screen for a while. “See, I am not being offered the kind of films I want to work on and something that I will be proud of. I have realised that I can’t do a solo-hero film produced by Karan Johar or Yash Raj Films. I did two films as a leading actor after Shootout At Lokhandwala that no one has even heard of. There are so many great ensemble cast films being made and that’s what I want to do. I’d rather wait for a good script and good filmmaker. And I am sure that will happen,” he states confidently.
Even though Rohit wants to give Bollywood his all right now, he strongly believes that television will always be an integral part of his life. “I will never give up television because I am a product of it. I have got all the recognition because of it. When I go to smaller satellite areas, people refer to me with my character name in Swabhimaan, which is a huge thing,” he asserts.
A while ago, Rohit made his directorial debut with a short film for Dus Kahaniyaan, which won him rave reviews. So does he plan to go behind the camera any time soon? He states excitedly, “This year, I will direct a film. Currently, I’m working on a couple of ideas. I will not make a mindless commercial masala film. It’s a great art to make a film like that but I don’t have that art. So I’d rather do something on human grounds as an emotion.”
Though Rohit directed senior actors like Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah in Dus Kahaniyaan, he wishes to work with the new breed of actors in his next flick. “I have a long wish list. Amongst actors, I would like to direct Ranbir Kapoor. He is an honest actor and his on-screen portrayal is so endearing. If you want to make a film about human emotions, you will have to look at people like him. Varun Dhawan too is a good actor and is surely the next big thing. Amongst actresses, Parineeti Chopra is great. She will be the next Kajol,” he states.
There is no doubt that Rohit was fantastic in his portrayal of a gangster in SAL. Naturally then, everyone was a little surprised to see him missing from the sequel, Shootout At Wadala. Ask him what’s the reason for his absence from that film and he says curtly, “I think you should ask Sanjay (Gupta, the director) why he did not cast me. He is a dear friend. When he was casting, he told me that there was a superb role for me. But then he started shooting the movie with no role for me in it. I am sure he must have wanted to give me something better than the role in Shootout At Lokhandwala but I guess he couldn’t because there was nothing for me.”
Rohit’s elder brother, Ronit Roy is now an integral part of the film industry too. Since both brothers belong to the same profession, isn’t there a sense of competition between them? “There is no sibling rivalry between Ronit and me. He is like a father to me. When I do well, he is happy and when he does well, I am happy. I had tears in my eyes when I saw his performance in Udaan. He is trying to consolidate his position and I have not had a good run in the last couple of years. That’s about it,” he says.
Initial buzz had suggested that Roy had bought the remake rights of the 1982 Basu Chatterjee-directed film Shaukeen. But recent reports confirm that Rumi Jaffery is all set to make the film. “There are two different producers of this film. We had bought the rights in the year 2009 from Basuda. But I believe he gave the rights of a couple of other films along with this one. I trust Basuda completely and now things are sorted and we have given an NOC from our end,” he concludes.
By Shabdita Shrivastav
Source: Magnamags