Manipur-Based Actor Accuses Jigra Makers Of Discrimination Against Actors Of North-East India: "Deeply Unprofessional"

Days after Divya Khossla accused Alia Bhatt of faking box office numbers for her new film Jigra, the film found itself enmeshed into another controversy. This time, a Manipur-based actor Bijou Thaangjam accused the Jigra makers of "unprofessional behaviour" and labelled accusations of bias towards actors from the North-East by "big production houses". In a long note, shared on X, Bijou Thaangjam opened up about how he auditioned for a role for Alia Bhatt's Jigra and how his dates were kept occupied without assuring him a final confirmation. Bijou Thaangjam claimed that he lost other films during that time as his dates were booked for Jigra. Bijou Thaangjam wrote on X,  "I'm not writing this with any agenda or accusations. I just want to share the reality of how actors like me from the Northeast are often treated by big production houses. Hopefully, this sheds some light on what we face."

He gave vivid details of the casting process for the film which caused him harassment. "I am not here to jump on the bandwagon on the Jigra controversy over the alleged copying of Divya Khossla Kumar's Savi, but I've been keeping my own experience with the Jigra team under wraps for a while, and maybe it's time to speak up. Back in 2023, I was approached by their casting team to audition for a role. I sent my tapes twice over the span of four months, playing along with their timeline. By the end of November, they told me I'd be shooting in December - fantastic, right? Except they never gave me any firm shoot dates. Still, they booked me for the entire month of December, expecting that I'd be ready to shoot for them at any moment. As someone based in Imphal, Manipur, I made it very clear from the start that travel arrangements would need to be made, but that didn't seem to matter," the actor wrote in the statement.

The note read, "Throughout the month, I was left in the dark, communicating with the casting team but receiving no real updates on when I'd actually be needed. The last message I received was on December 26th, stating 'Waiting for a revert', and after that - complete silence. Meanwhile, I'd lost out on other projects because I was sitting around, waiting for them to give me the go-ahead. But of course, that never came."

Bijou Thaangjam concluded the post with these words, "I understand how big production houses operate. The director is undeniably talented, but the way they handled this entire situation was deeply unprofessional. For actors like me from the Northeast, it felt particularly dismissive, almost discriminatory. My time was wasted, and I missed out on other opportunities just because they expected I'd be available at a moment's notice. I am not writing this with any agenda or accusations. I just want to share the reality of how actors like me from the Northeast are often treated by big production houses. Hopefully, this sheds some light on what we face." Take a look:

I'm not writing this with any agenda or accusations. I just want to share the reality of how actors like me from the Northeast are often treated by big production houses. Hopefully, this sheds some light on what we face. #Jigra #JigraMovie #AliaBhatt #DivyaKhosla #VasanBala pic.twitter.com/zZBZjxOz6k— Bijou ThaangJam (@BijouThaangjam) October 13, 2024

A couple of days ago, Divya Khossla accused Alia Bhatt of rigging the box office numbers by sharing pictures of empty theatres. This post followed discussions about similarities between Divya's film Savi and Alia Bhatt's Jigra. Savi, featuring Harshvardhan Rane and Anil Kapoor, tells the story of a housewife attempting to break her husband out of a prison in England, while in Jigra, Alia's character plans a jailbreak to rescue her brother.

Alia Bhatt's Jigra has been struggling at the box office to register big numbers since its opening day. On its first Sunday, the movie recorded a 26.57% overall Hindi occupancy. So far, the crime fiction drama has accumulated a total of ₹16.75 crore, per Sacnilk.