Box office success may have evaded him but Sanjay Suri's talent is unquestioned. Witness his restrained performances in his debut fil
m Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi, followed by Meghna Gulzars Filhaal and Anant Mahadevan's Dil Vil Pyaar Vyaar.
Making a quietly unobtrusive impact, Suri is currently in news for Shreya Shrivastava's Insaaf where he replicates the real-life role of a civil servant in Bihar whose wife gets raped by a politician.
"I believe the film is in some legal trouble," Sanjay says softly. "We will fight it out. Insaaf is partly inspired by the real life incident. When I signed the film I didn't even know about the real incident. I did the role because I liked it."
Known to underplay his character, Suri jokes, "I will have to bring my talent out from deep down where people can see it. Seriously, I am a quiet person in real life. In my acting also, I feel I would rather convey an emotion through a gesture or a smile than make a song and dance of my feelings. A lot of people think letting it all hang out is what acting is all about. That's the kind of performances Indian audiences are used to."
Although regretful, Suri is not bitter. "I am just doing what comes naturally to me without bothering about others. If you constantly keep looking over your shoulder you lose out on your own performance. I am a very secure and hopefully stable person. It reflects in my performances."
He admits there isn't enough activity in his career. He attributes it to a lack of media hype. "When my first film Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi came out the entire media attention was on my co-stars Dino Morea and Rinkie Khanna. The film launched them, not me. That's where my slotting as the second-lead started. Unfortunately I hadn't signed ten films while my debut was under-production. Fortunately after its release no one said I can't act . But I couldn't get into any big-canvas films. Which is okay because I didn't go out of my way to woo the big banners. It isn't my nature do so."
For six months after Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi the actor was jobless. "Finally Kalpana Lajmi called me for Daman. She was a critically acclaimed director. I was an out-of-job actor. Lethal combination," chuckles Suri.
Suri now has his hopes pinned on debutante Sujoy Ghosh's Jhankaar Beats. "Call it the creative shortsightedness of filmmakers or my own shortcoming, but I am always playing nice guys. I would love to play an out and out evil guy. I play a good guy in Jhankaar Beats , as usual . But I am funny. I am doing a comic role for the first time. I have discovered I am comfortable with it. The film takes a zany look at life. I play a musician in a band."
Sanjay calls Jhankaar Beats a 6-character film. "Rahul Bose and I play best friends. Music binds us together, so obviously there's a lot of singing and dancing. All of us were extremely comfortable since we were given a bound script. Everything worked out wonderfully. The director Sujoy Ghosh's rapport with his actors was amazing. Rahul and I were made to rehearse our scenes."
In Chandraprakash Dwivedi's hyped Pinjar, Suri plays a secular scholar and poet in pre-Partition India. "Like Filhaal, Pinjar is a woman's story. I play the man Urmila [Matondkar] is to marry. I lose her but I keep waiting for her," he says.
He is also doing Sanjay Gupta's Plan, another multi hero project like Filhaal and Jhankaar beats. Suri throws up his hands in mock-despair. "Everyone is doing multiple-hero films. I don't choose to be in multi-starrers. The solo hero projects I get are not interesting enough. Why not be part of the bigger picture? I rather be part of a film I am proud of, like Filhaal and Pinjar. Unless I get decent author-backed roles I will continue doing brief roles in important films," he asserts with a finality.
Speaking of Plan he says, "It is a comic thriller. I play a gambler. I have changed my look [pointing at his new spiked-hair-goatee appearance] for the film." When I met [producer] Sanjay Gupta and [director] Hriday Shetty I requested them to give me a role I haven't done before."
In Ashwini Chowdhary's post-Kargil film Dhoop Suri makes a special appearance as a Kargil martyr. "Om Puri and Revathi are my parents. I couldn't have asked for better. Working with Om Puri was a fantastic experience. Former Miss India Gul Panag is my fiancée. It is a touching story with a soul."
He isn't rueful about not getting launched in a big way like the star sons. "There have been cases of outsiders like Shah Rukh Khan striking gold. As a rule the industry guys do have an upper hand. It's scientifically proven fact that if you see the same face 30 times a day on 20 TV channels you have no choice but to like it. Stardom is a matter of one Friday. I could have come with a bang and then fizzled out. I prefer slow and steady progress. The struggle is tough but I feel success is around the corner. When talent meets opportunity it is called luck. I am getting there."
