An ecological thriller set in the jungle where the protagonists come face-to-face with a man-eating leopard is not the kind of a film where you expect to see Jaaved Jaaferi. In Ashvin Kumar's The Forest , scheduled to release on May 4, the actor is one of the three principal characters along with Nandana Sen and Ankur Vikal. “When a filmmaker like Ashvin Kumar (whose short film Little Terrorist was nominated for Academy Awards in 2005) looks at a comedy actor like me and offers an out-of-the-box film in English language with a fantastic script, it feels great,” says Jaaved Jaaferi.
Ashvin Kumar feels that Jaaved is one of the most underrated actors in the country and strongly believes that an actor who excels in comedy can make the cut in any genre. Jaaved on his part responds with, “It's part of the system where we, actors, get branded in certain kind of roles. I enjoy my comedies. At the same time, you feel the urge to take up projects for yourself, to appease the actor within you. I've done very few serious roles, like in Fire and Shaurya .”
Jaaved is not the kind of actor to just whine about being typecast. He has been doing his best to rise above Bollywood's limitations. He funded Inshallah Football , directed by Ashvin Kumar, which won the National Award for Best Film on Social Issues, and also founded the Indian Documentary Foundation. The latter, he says, came about when he saw the enthusiasm of some of his documentary filmmaker friends. Miriam Chandy's The Rat Race , which recently found a theatrical release in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, he feels, paints a picture of hope for documentary filmmakers. “The IDF was formed six months ago and functions as a platform for documentary filmmakers. We participated in the Nasik Film Festival, conducted a filmmaking workshop and are looking at ways to raise awareness levels for documentaries,” says Jaaved.
The actor wants to break the perception that documentaries are boring. “Any form of film has to have an engaging story. For instance, The Rat Race was engrossing. How many people know that even graduates work as rat catchers in Mumbai?” asks Jaaved. As he elaborates on the documentaries he has loved watching, he cannot fathom the dichotomy of the government banning Inshallah Football and then conferring it a national award. “We are hoping to release Inshallah Football soon. It's a beautiful story about a Kashmiri boy having to wait for years to get his passport to be able to go to Brazil to play football. The film narrates the story of how he was denied permission simply because his father was a former militant,” says Jaaved.
As he winds up, the actor reveals his plans to produce a feature film. “It's going to be a thriller with a good star cast,” is all that he will share at the moment.
