“I didn’t expect it to be as big as it turned out to be. I know many people wanted me to have more screen time and I understand where it’s coming from, they always saw me as a leading man in films, but this was a new vertical and I did it because I wanted to work with Neeraj Pandey and Shivam Nair Sir, without any expectations. But whenever I was there on screen I owned it. My fans were always interested and hungry to see a talent like me onscreen and asked me the reason for my disappearance from screen, but it’s the industry, the filmmaker’s and producers who decide what they want to feed people, if it’s substandard talent they encourage due to the lack of their own creativity, people get used to what’s been fed to them as there’s no alternative to chose from. It’s great that OTT is instrumental in shaping up peoples career the way it is,” he says.
After Special Ops, Muzamil is looking for substantial parts. “Our industry, unfortunately, still operates on clichés, an average looking guy is always considered a better actor than a guy who looks better than him, it’s funny, even though everyone knows well my potential as an actor, and I say it in all humility and respect for others. I have been working as an actor since I was a child. I did gulli nautankis, performed in town halls, on verandas of my friends houses, anywhere where I found an audience, I was a show-off. My mom’s uncle was a regional published playwright n poet, and he would make us work in his plays. I remember performing for 10-10 hours daily sometimes, going from one school to another during my childhood days. Even today I rehearse and work on my craft sometimes for 8-10 hours a day. I don’t socialise, don’t have a girlfriend, I have no time for anything else in my life. I’m a self taugh screenwriter, it’s gives me another dimension to my craft as an actor, and have been writing my own scripts from past 9 years and I hope they will soon see the light of the day too. I know what I can offer,” adds the actor.
Muzamil feels the web has been a breath of fresh air for the industry and talent, who have finally started to get their due. But he feels things are going the wrong direction at the moment.
“What Nawazuddin said about OTT isn’t quite wrong. Slashing prices of subscriptions won’t entice people to come watch shows if people responsible aren’t honest to the medium that this platform was supposed to cater to. It was for new age filmmaker’s and actors, not the filmmakers and actors who have been written off by the public. I haven’t met a new filmmaker whose series was made purely on the basis of emailing his submission to a platform yet. It’s all, ‘who knows who, and how, for now’,” he shares.
Pandemic has changed the way we think and live. “There were many takeaways and it’s personal. My Instagram had turned into a broadcasting channel for beds and oxygen supplies back then. The government failed, but people had each other’s back. I’ll never forget how kind people have become to each other during this time,” he sounds emotional.
However, he doesn’t complain about the year 2021, but hopes the next year will bring joy and prosperity to everyone.
“Thankfully, my family is safe, my relatives and friends are doing well. If you are alive, healthy and have food on your table today, you have every reason to be thankful. I’m just grateful for everything. Honestly, I don’t expect much from 2022, at the same time a lot too. I keep it that way now. I was supposed to do a film in London last year. We were about to leave in August but then things went south. It feels bad… So it’s better to keep your expectations low and hopes high,” he ends.
