Actor Ravi Kishan's Kab Hoi Gawna Hamaar became the first Bhojpuri feature film to win a National Award. Besides this, the actor has won several accolades in the regional film industry for his body of work. However, it was his angst about his failed Bollywood career that propelled him in the direction of Bhojpuri cinema in the first place. In an interview with Brut India, Ravi Kishan shared how disappointed he was about his career not taking off in Bollywood, even though he'd worked with well-established names such as Sridevi, Salman Khan, and Dharmendra. Indian Express Entertainment is now on WhatsApp Channels. Follow us for the latest news, interviews, reviews, photos and more. Recalling the expectations he had from the Hindi film industry, Ravi said, "I was there, thinking that one fine day my sunrise will also come. In the 1990s, Akshay Kumar and all these friends of ours had come. I am from the '90s lot too. I thought, I am also 6 feet tall, I have a good voice, a body, but I didn't get work. I did Army, Tere Naam. several films with Mithun Chakraborty, Dharmendra, but I was not getting a hit." However, the actor channeled these negative emotions into something constructive. "One fine day I realised. and in anger and hurt I started my own industry, the Bhojpuri industry. I made myself a superstar there. The country's audience supported me. And today, one lakh people have found employment in that industry," said Ravi. He added, "I got Rs 75,000 for that film, out of which Rs 25,000 I put in action. Whatever I learned from the Hindi film industry, all that training and thought I put into that. So people thought that they have got a young hero of their own." Ravi, who ran away from his village to become an actor, became a household name after he appeared in the first season of the popular reality show Bigg Boss, in 2006. "So then, my life began and I've never looked back, and then Bigg Boss happened. My dialogue 'Zindagi jhandva, phir bhi ghamndva' became a national dialogue, and after that, I got Mani Ratnam's film, Shyam Benegal's film, Anurag Kashyap's film, and then I never looked back. Hindi cinema happened, then Telugu cinema happened," said the actor. Ravi was recently seen in two Hindi projects - Laapataa Ladies and Maamla Legal Hai. The actor's next Bhojpuri film is going to be Mahadev ka Gorakhpur, which he feels will revive the sinking Bhojpuri film industry.
