Asrani & the trap of the Bollywood stereotype

What will you remember Asrani for? Sholay? Abhimaan? Since the death of the veteran actor was announced, a lot of obituaries and fan-posts on social media have mentioned his iconic dialogue from Sholay "Hum angrezon ke zamane ke jailer hain" (I am a jailor of the British era). Asrani acted in more than 300 films in Hindi and Gujarati. Some small, some big.

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Despite such a mammoth filmography, if we choose to remember an actor for a specific role/dialogue from one film, it says something about our viewing of an actor's body of work. It means that we have normalised stereotyping him to such an extent that it doesn’t even seem discordant anymore. Imagine the disappointment of the actor who is remembered for one role despite a vast filmography, while marginalising everything else he has done on screen!