Ridhi Dogra: Bollywood isn’t a creative industry, it’s closed and business-minded

Having carved a place for herself in the television industry, actor Ridhi Dogra made her big screen debut earlier this year with Lakadbaggha. The film is set to have its European premiere later this month at the 20th Indisches Film Festival Stuttgart (Germany). While Dogra is thrilled, she feels it is “sad and embarrassing” that good content only comes into notice in India when it’s appreciated elsewhere.

“There’s a certain laziness in this industry. People don’t see talent for what it can be, they see it for what it is. It is so sad and embarrassing. We don’t have the conviction to use talent. We need people from around us to tell us, ‘Arrey isme kuch baat hai’. The moment that happens, we are convinced to put our money on them safely,” she says.

The actor, who has done web projects such as Asur and The Married Woman, admits that transitioning from one medium to another hasn’t been easy. Despite these challenges, Dogra has come a long way. She is all set to share screen with superstars Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan in Tiger 3 and Jawan respectively.

Ask if she faced any obstacles bagging these projects, and the 38-year-old says, “I face challenges all the time. Playing a role onscreen isn’t the challenging part, but figuring things off camera is a task. You just want to act, but then you have to be a marketing person, too, [knowing how to seel yourself]. During this process, you also realise that the film industry — that claims to be a creative field — is actually such a closed setup and business-minded. Especially when there are big monies involved, makers want to put money on actors they are comfortable with, because they feel that particular star would listen to them”.

Talking about the challenges she faced, the actor says, “I used to find things like, ‘Yeh toh TV actor hai’ very absurd. It’s wrong to generalise. I consider myself an exception. I don’t have this baggage that I’m from TV, I never think like that. I feel sad for a lot of people who get stuck in these labels. If you are an actor, you belong to all the mediums,” says the actor, adding that she takes pride in “belonging to TV and OTT”.

She goes on to share that unlike actors who get things on a platter, those coming from different mediums have to struggle to make a place for themselves. “I don’t have people guiding or telling me ki, ‘Yeh 10 filmein aa rahi hain’. I literally have to chase people and run after them to see the potential in me. It’s a little embarrassing because you may feel that your work should speak for you, but it’s a different game in Bollywood,” she says.

Having said that, Dogra doesn’t discount the “incredible experience” she had working with the two Khans. “I did these films not because they were calculated moves, but because I wanted to be on film sets where there are the big superstars, to see how they work and how such a big production happens. I went into it as a student of cinema. I didn’t have an agenda ki main yeh karungi toh woh ho jayega… Somewhere, I do feel that I have taken a big risk, you’ll know why I’m saying this after the films release, but then so be it. I don’t think too much,” she signs off.