Junior Artists- Marginalized Section Of Hindi Cinema

A movie is being produced by the hard work of director, assistant directors, producers, actor/actress, and co-actor/actress, director of photography, singer, music composer, lyrists, script writer and junior artists. Among all these superiors, junior artists, who can be considered as the lungs of the protagonist, are highly marginalized in Hindi cinema. Without them a protagonist can’t think to breathe in a particular movie. But all the time junior artists have been only used by directors to emphasize the role of protagonist and make him focused for applauding and appreciation of the audience. It is the junior artists who form the crowd at the background and who dance behind the lead actors.

A few of these people have been working in the industry for almost 50 years, but have still remained at the position of just a junior artist. They are identified as ‘the extras’ in movie terms and live a life in the shadow, getting neither fame nor money compared to the other actors. Bollywood at the time of silent movies used to deploy fewer characters, and junior artists were given some importance by the crew members. But after independence, owing to the demand of films and sudden increment of audience, it caused a sudden surge in the quantity of artists in a movie, ultimately resulting in the negligence of junior artists. During the 70s, 80s, and 90s, situations had started becoming worse and they were considered as “other” people on shooting locations. Sometimes they were not even paid. The age of 20s and initial period of the 21st century can be marked as somehow good for some junior artists who turned into actors. Examples of the prominent actors of this era like Shahid Kapoor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Irrfan Khan, Rajpal Yadav, Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar. Perhaps they were blessed with good fortune so their life turned into stardust.

Apart from them, almost all junior artists who once had visions of movie stardom, drifted somewhere in Mumbai, the home of world’s biggest film industry. The years and years of auditions only led to them being just another face in the crowd, who are never recognized by the public. They are paid meager sums of money compared to the fees paid to the leading actors. These extras have no will of their own, even in many studios there are no rooms available and they have to sit on the fields waiting for their call. Since the movies nowadays are more prone to be shone as youthful, vibrant and glamorous, the film makers also want the junior artists to be more glossy and young. They never, at least tried to listen about their will and call. The Junior Artists Association of Mumbai has over 10,000 members. They use to find their roles in TV serials and movies with minimal amount. These people live in vile conditions as they hardly have any earning but do not give up hope or return to their native places.

Plus, they also have to pay a big amount to become members of the Junior Artists Association, which only adds to their misery. They do auditions after auditions, face rejections after rejections, for just 10-40 second roles which go unnoticed. An example might be observed by everyone that, Nawazuddin Siddiqui was unnoticed by Aamir Khan while he did two short roles in his movie ‘Sarfarosh’ and ‘Talaash’. With all these frustrations, junior artists consider themselves “outsiders” within the movie industry. These marginalized sections of Hindi cinema should be provided settings for every scene, and not only to be used by directors to show a crowd and increase the main characters’ fantasy in a film.