Govind Namdev says actors of today focus more on ‘gym and social media’: ‘No feeling of warmth on sets, it’s strictly professional’

The actor said what has also undergone a huge change from his days on film sets when he began working in the early 90s, is the way people gelled with each other. A project was a celebration of people coming together, never as assignment to be finished.

“Earlier, there was a lot more connection between actors or actors and directors, actors and writers with their work. Today, it’s strictly professional. They don’t work with that warmth. They just deliver what is required out of a professional and move on to the next,” Namdev added.

Govind Namdev reflects at the changing trends of the industry.

But not all changes are bad, of course. Something in particular that Namdev is most happy about is the sheer increase in quality work today, thanks to the streaming revolution. The actor says the parts he is getting offered for OTT projects are far more “layered” and doesn’t fit in the conventional boxing of a straight up “villain”.

“Fortunately, the content coming out today is not routine, people are trying something new, and a lot of realistic content is out there. I am now getting a lot of complex characters and I feel very fortunate. The fact that they are considering me for this, because earlier only routine villain characters would come to me, and even in those I would add some characteristics and try to make each one apart and better. Parts being offered today are truly multi-layered.

“This is due to the OTT revolution. Even in small towns, people are watching world cinema. People are now getting more aware about good performances, good cinematography and direction and these are laymen I am talking about.”

Namdev made his debut as a corrupt cop in David Dhawan’s Shola Aur Shabnam in 1992 and soon established himself as the go-to artiste for strong negative roles. Contrary to what one would perceive, Namdev said he was never disappointed with negative roles coming his way because in the traditional Hindi movie set up, the only three characters which were central to the plot were hero, heroine and villain.

“There was ever a disappointment. Playing a villain was by choice. In Bandit Queen, he was this arrogant man who would thrive on being a ‘dabangg’ while in another film, I played this disgusting person, and then in Sarfarosh, I was a different villain. I was always a character, never myself, hence if you line up all of them, they would each be different from each other. I never got bored of these characters, they would always make me excited.

“Traditionally if you look at Hindi films, only three characters were important: Hero, heroine and villain. The entire story would revolve around them and other characters were never this meaty. So I always found a lot of scope in these characters to perform.”

Namdev now has a packed film slate with projects like Akshay Kumar-Pankaj Tripathi starrer OMG 2, Taapsee Pannu starrer Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan and Gandhi Talks among others. The actor said when he reflects on his three-decade long journey, he feels no regrets.

“My 32 year-old journey has been very satisfying. I have no complaints, there are no regrets. I did work on my term, always gave my all to the characters I played and have remained very sincere to my craft. They say an actor never gets satisfied and that’s true, but it doesn’t mean you remain restless also. My attempt is to do better, go bigger and I am also working on it. Every time a character needs me, I would want to be there with my best,” he added.