Jason Shah says he’s ‘shocked’ to see people enjoy Dhurandhar violence, criticises Yash’s Toxic teaser: ‘Shows where our minds have evolved to as producers’ | Bollywood News
6 min readMumbaiFeb 3, 2026 07:14 PM IST
Actor Jason Shah, remembered for his role as Officer Cartwright in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi, is all set to appear in Vijay Thalapathy’s last film, Jana Nayagan. While the film’s release date continues to be unclear, Jason feels happy about being a part of something so historic. In a recent conversation with SCREEN, Jason Shah spoke about working with Bobby Deol and ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay in the film. Jason expressed strong disapproval of violent films like Toxic and Dhurandhar being loved.
Talking about being a part of Vijay Thalapathy’s last film, Jana Nayagan, Jason said, “It is truly a blessing to be a part of history. This is a moment in time where the world is changing, and for a man like Vijay Thalapathy to leave at one of the peaks in his career is something. The love of his fans is unbelievable. He is one of the superstars from the South, and I feel blessed to be a part of a film with him.” He even spoke about sharing screen space with Bobby Deol and recalls being left in awe. “Bobby is amazing. He came up to me and said I appreciate your work in Heeramandi, and I didn’t know what to say. A man of his stature and level in Bollywood, who is giving back-to-back hits, lauded my work; I was blown away. He is very down to earth. We have had some lovely conversations throughout the filming; it changed my mind about him in so many ways.”
Jason on Jana Nayagan’s controversy
Jana Nayagan has not received clearance from the CBFC, and while the stay order on the film continues, Jason says, “I was really excited that the film was releasing on January 9. I am not 100 percent sure about the certification as to what goes on. I have never actually fully understood the process; it’s not my department. But religion and politics always have something to do with movies. Whoever is voted in as the ruling party gets to decide what happens. Your voting causes these kinds of decisions, so if you have done that, then also sit back and be happy.”
‘I was shocked to see people enjoy the violence in Dhurandhar’
The Jana Nayagan actor also shared his views on how religion and politics infleunce filmmaking today. He said, “Religion and politics have had a heavy play on movies not just in India, but also around the world. You see all subliminal messages that are being put into movies its because times have changed, cinema has been an art form that speaks to people, it connects to them, so if films don’t evolve, people may lose interest. However, I feel the innocence of movies is lost. Would everyone go to watch Partner today? I don’t think so. People want to see so much violence. I was seeing the teaser of Toxic, which shows people where our minds have evolved to as producers.”
He further added, “I was shocked to see people enjoy the violence in Dhurandhar. Parents took their young children to watch the film. But again, Dhurandhar was related to politics; it was a story about something that happened in India, a very serious subject, and people like to see other people’s opinions on what they have created on this subject.”
’90 percent of actors in the industry are insecure’
In an earlier interview, Jason had made a strong statement about Bollywood actors. He said, 90 percent of them are insecure. Elaborating further on why he said so, Jason shared, “I say this from experience, I work with actors all the time, and so I say 90 percent of them are very insecure. It’s just the way it is. It’s not only actors, but everybody has become so insecure about what they do; that’s where the hate stems from. People don’t believe in their craft or their talent enough. In the work space also, chatter starts, people pull each other down, put unnecessary pressure on each other, so that the other person quits. All this happens, it happens to actors and everyone else alike.”
He further said, “Look at someone like Akshaye Khanna, where was he for so long? He was where he chose to be; he was not bothered if someone said he was not working enough or was not in the newspaper every day. He works when he wants to, and he does it really well, and that’s why he is remembered for it. People in the industry then say he has undoubtedly been a fantastic actor always, but then why hasn’t he worked so much? Because he didn’t want to. I heard him say once in an interview that if he doesn’t connect to a film, he doesn’t do it. I liked him in Drishyam 2 also. So, people should stop worrying about the background noise.”
On the work front, Jason Shah has three other Telugu films in the pipeline. He will also be seen in Amazon Prime’s upcoming web series Revolutionary.
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