Last Updated: March 24, 2023, 18:13 IST
Suniel Shetty looks back at his three decade long career.
Suniel Shetty also talks about how social media is playing a big role for actors to market themselves.
Time and again, Suniel Shetty has gifted his fans movies and characters that are loved and cherished. With a career spanning over three decades, in an exclusive interview with News18 Showsha, Shetty shared that over the years, he has not only grown as an actor but has also ‘mentally criticized a lot of work’ that he has been part of. Recently seen in his OTT series Hunter, Suniel also talked at length about his growth, his biggest takeaways from showbiz and how social media is playing a big role in how actors and cinema are being perceived today.
When asked if he has seen significant growth in himself with his experience in choosing films and projects, Suniel Shetty shared, “Definitely. Because I sit back now. I’ve watched a lot from the outside also, and probably mentally criticized a lot of stuff that I saw, and when you criticize, you realize that I was in the same boat, maybe I was as bad. But I didn’t do things right also. So I need to work on myself. So you become your own critic. And when you become your own critic, you sit back and you watch and say, ‘these are the areas I need to improve on, these are the areas I need to focus on’. And I guess that’s what I did in the last 8-10 years and understood the mediums better.”
The actor further added, “You learn to choose better, whether it’s your own character, working on your script, you want to do what you’re good at? Why should I do something that I’m not good at and don’t think I could deliver? I would not want to play anything that doesn’t justify or complement my age.”
Suniel had earlier shared how actors in today’s time have become insecure about one another and are going through rigorous ways of marketing themselves in order to stay relevant for their fans. When asked if this is just a phase, he shared, “Things are already changing, you’re seeing a drastic change in the way cinema is being consumed, in the way actors are presenting themselves now, how they’re marketing themselves. I think there’s an audience that has changed and the box office is telling us a hell of a lot [different story], so we better take notice of all that and start behaving accordingly. Content is king and content will always be king. So it doesn’t matter who you are. Your film, being good is very, very important. If I like certain things about the show, somebody else might not like it. So I need to be honest to myself.”
Explaining the same, Shetty told us, “Even social media doesn’t allow you to be fake anymore. And when people see through it, people read it. And that’s why you see influencers after the year, two years, three years are lost when it comes to what they need to do because somebody else is taking their place. So you need to definitely make sure that you’re prepared with what you want. You should have the IQ to be able to grow year after year.”
On a closing note, he shared, “These influencers probably may have made enough money to sustain, but mentally can they sustain themselves? Do they need help? Because what are they climbing onto? There is no base there’s no foundation, it’s quicksand. So kids have to be aware of that. And likewise, we have to be aware of that. So the more honest I am, it’s easier and safer for me. You know, and that’s how to go and that’s how you should treat social media. I am who I am, I put out what I want. I cannot have somebody telling me what to wear to the airport.”
