Rajeev Khandelwal says, ‘I don't look at it with a lot of respect,’ to actors getting work based on social media followers; calls it creativity erosion l Exclusive

Rajeev Khandelwal is an actor who has remained relevant for two decades. The actor, who made his acting debut in 2003 in the TV show Kahiin To Hoga, was working as a director almost a decade before that. The journey has been long and full of roadblocks, as he once recalled going through a tough battle to shape his debut feature film Aamir (2008), directed by Raj Kumar Gupta of Raid fame. Now, however, we have only seen a limited amount of him on the screen, and the actor spends his time away from public life. Life now comes full circle for him as he plays a superstar in a show called Showtime, backed by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and starring Emraan Hashmi, Mouni Roy, Naseeruddin Shah, Mahima Makwana, amongst others.

Recently, as Showtime was about to witness the release of its Part 2, OTTplay sat down for an exclusive conversation with Rajeev Khandelwal about his career, his ways of finding work, his fight with social media, and whether he has or can adapt to the changes it brings. The actor, in the candid chat, spoke about the erosion of creativity that the industry is suffering now and how change is responsible for it, even if change is important. Read on to learn everything you should know about the same. 

Rajeev Khandelwal on Adapting to Change

In our exclusive conversation, we asked Rajeev Khandelwal about the fact that he belongs to a time when auditions were the only source of getting work and actors were relying on that and working hard towards it. What does he feel about the change in the system where now even the number of social media followers is taken into consideration? Has he adapted to it? He was quick to say, “No, I can't adapt to it. I don't look at it with a lot of respect either, to be honest. I look at it with a real approach, and the approach is that change is the only constant thing, let's say. And change is bound to happen. For me, this is not a change for the betterment of our industry’s beauty. And our beauty is creativity. And of course, creativity rests on a business, but I just feel like with this one there'll be a lot of creative erosion. Creativity erosion, if I may call it that way, will happen because now it will be about numbers, which is happening.”

He added, “Unfortunately, not just that the actors who were coming in talk only about social media followers, the projects also talk about only numbers. If you look at three days gross is this much. No, don't talk about the quality of the film, talk about only numbers, that is a norm today. For example, a recent release: I have not heard anyone talk about how great or good that film is; all I'm hearing is about the record collection in the last four, five days, seven days, or whatever. Is anyone talking about the content? No, nobody, at least not in my circle. Only numbers, all over India, all over the world.”

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Rajeev Khandelwal on Content vs. Numbers

Rajeev Khandelwal further in our conversation went on to talk about the lack of people asking for content over those who talk about numbers. “Where is the content? So there is an erosion of that creative part of our industry, which I think was probably bound to happen. Why is that? The number of players has increased, and this is business, so when the number of players increases, the modus operandi changes because it has to serve every individual’s greed and ambition. So many players in the arena and everyone thinking about themselves, there will be no sanity in terms of your approach. It will be whatever works; ‘Boss, this works for me.’ Everyone has their own approach.”

Rajeev added, “So you cannot say that there is going to be a sane playing field. It is going to be an insane playing field because the number of players has gone up. Stakes have probably gone up for individuals, which was not like this just maybe 10 years back. We were still talking about content.”

Rajeev Khandelwal on Criticism & Validation

In the chat, Rajeev Khandelwal was candid about what he feels about the current trend that only looks for statistics and no real-life aspects that were earlier taken into consideration. He spoke about how even critics talk of numbers mostly now. “Critics also—I mean, there are no critics left anymore, not a single critic left anymore. They just give out the numbers. They’re probably their headlines, and it’s so funny to actually read about when they say the biggest opening of 2024. Come on, let's say the biggest content of the year? No? So things have changed, and everything has changed accordingly. When the main narrative changes, everything else also changes.”

When we quipped about how validation is not as organic as it used to be, Rajeev Khandelwal quickly said, “I mean not even remotely close to organic love that I was just telling somebody that, you know, I do not know whether these numbers would fetch the kind of love some of us who have been fortunate to witness. Will they ever be able to witness that organic love? They will probably not be able to relate to what is called organic love, where you say that, you know what, there isn’t any following. I was sitting somewhere across the country, and someone was actually blessing me. A granny sitting in some small village would actually send her love for somebody. But then I think that was the order of the day back in the day. Today the order of the day is different, the generations change, and the code changes, and I cannot relate to what I am saying.”

“Who now cares about granny wishing me and sending me love? Excuse me, I care about how many products I am representing on my social media account and how much I am getting paid to be the influencer. I would probably have no words to reply to that. So approaches are different,” Rajeev Khandelwal added.

Showtime is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more information on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.

Also Read: Showtime: More A Blind Item Than Bollywood Exposé