Dipanjali Sarkar
As James Meetei is keenly waiting for the release of the web series on OTT, Dipanjali Sarkar caught up with him over a call. After all the youth from Tripura has made it to Bollywood after a lot of hustle and bustle. At the beginning, he was more into dance. James Meetei dreamed of enthralling the audience with his dance.
In his own words, “It was after my HS+2 in 2010, I flew to Mumbai with one of my friends with a hope to fulfill my dreams. However, fulfilling dreams in Mumbai is not a cakewalk. I was studying in college but could not make sufficient time for dance and other co-curricular activities. So, I left the college”.
In Mumbai he has done it all – like many of the strugglers there who wanted to make it big in the silver screen—from selling newspapers on railway stations to washing cars to make a living as he did not want to take financial support from his parents.
“After a year, I also worked in a ‘Merchant Navy’ in Malaysia but returned to native place in Tripura within a year and started fullfledged work for our YouTube channel ‘Zango Boyz Tripura’. We made several music videos.”
Stories of aspirant dancers are very much common. However, the story of this Tripura boy is different. Performing in a tiny State like Tripura and getting recognition is not an easy task at all – moreover, scope is also very much limited. He said, “I performed in several events in Agartala and got a little bit of exposure in this field. Then I shifted here and besides performing in various events and live festivals, I started teaching in Tripura Dance Academy.
In one of the events I was recognized by one renowned director of Tripura and he signed me in for his upcoming Kokborok movie which released in 2015. He introduced me to cinema and people started recognizing me. I did another movie in 2017 under the same production house but the situation of the film industry in Tripura is grim”. On asking about the failure of Tripura film industry to attract a sufficient number of the audience he opined,
“See, you need to see the number of cinema halls in the state. There are only a few halls scattered in Tripura and most of the multi and single screens are centred in Agartala. So, you cannot expect people to come from far away villages to watch one movie. If the revenue is not enough, who would take the risk of investing money in films?”. Coming back to the point of the journey towards Bollywood, he said “I was doing well in the field of dance but I was not able to make enough money for my living.
However, seeing no way, I decided to go back to Mumbai again. That is when my friend Neeraj Godiyal with whom I first went to Mumbai came into my rescue. I started going to a training academy. There I came to know about audition calls. In March 2018, I went for an audition and got selected for a supporting character in ‘URI- The Surgical Strike’. After that, I have done numerous advertisements for well-known brands and then one day I was called by Ajay Devgan’s production house for their film ‘Tanhaji’. I worked as an action trainer as well as a stuntman.”
He was excited while talking of his appearance in the new web series, named ‘Indo China War 1962’ directed by Mahesh Manjrekar. He said “It will be released on Disney+Hotstar by the end of this year and talking of my future projects, I have signed with a Germany based company named ‘Bullet Action Design’ a few days ago and hopefully, we can start work by mid or late September”. When people make it to a bigger platform with their sheer hard work, they also lay the path for others to dream big.
To motivate youths, he said, “Dreaming big is easier than holding on to it. You have to be persistently working towards achieving it. So, you have to keep in mind that either you stick to it or see it leaving you”. He is thankful to his parents, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, the Manipuri community and to people of Tripura for supporting him in his journey.We barely shift our focus from the leads of a film to the supporting actors, choreographers or stuntmen who are equally important to the success of a film. (First Published in Tripura Times dt August 18, 2020)
