Actor-model Milind Soman, who has been getting positive feedback for his recent release, Lakadbaggha, is glad to finally see challenging roles come his way. He admits that during the initial phases of his career, his acting potential was not used to its fullest by filmmakers. One reason for this, Soman feels, is that they failed to look beyond his looks.

Recalling one such incident of getting typecast as a “good-looking” person — and just that — the 57-year-old says, “I remember, a director called me for a film and said, ‘There is only one scene where you have to sit between Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor Khan (actors) in the plane. Kareena is flirting with you because you are good-looking and Akshay is jealous of that’. When I heard the script, I said, ‘What is this, am I playing myself? Tell this producer that he is a fool. It’s ridiculous. Is this even an idea?’”

The problem, Soman says, lies in the lack of imagination in the industry. “They can’t imagine what all this person can do. We need to be fearless with our imagination, not just in creating something new, but also in casting new actors. All the young and popular people that we have today are not able to make interesting films because there is no imagination. Neither the directors nor the writers can see beyond the persona they have created.”

He is, however, hopeful that things will change, with Lakadbaggha being a start: “I am just looking forward and waiting for filmmakers to imagine me in roles that will surprise me.”

A common advice he has received in his career of over two decades, is to network more. But, Soman says that this can often confine one to a box. “What happens is, when you network, you keep on working with the same set of people again and again. Where is the collaboration? Sab doston ke saath hi kaam karte hain. There are filmmakers who say that they prefer working with people they are comfortable with. But, you have to also get comfortable with a new set of people. Collaboration means choosing the right person for the job... So first, we do not have an imagination and second, we stay in a box,” he wraps up.