Actor Pooja Verma alleges groupism in Punjabi industry

Pooja Verma, who has done five Punjabi films including, ‘22g Tussi Ghaint Ho', '

Baaz

', '

Dakuan Da Munda

', ‘15 Lakh Kadon Aauga’ has come out alleging groupism in the Punjabi industry that is “hindering talented people from getting work here”. In an interaction with

ETimes

, Pooja said, “Even after giving your 100% you realise you won’t get a good film in Punjabi because you don’t belong to a pre-existing group,and that hurts.” After the suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput and the allegations of nepotism having raked Bollywood, it seems this has given courage to actors from other industries to speak up too.

“I live in Delhi and just to meet the

Punjabi producers

I would travel back and forth from Delhi and sometimes even from Mumbai where I was doing a TV serial, ‘

NaamKaran

’. And they would have multiple meetings for finalizing one film. At least 3-4 times it happened that after finalizing me, sending me the agreement, blocking my dates, producers would tell me they replaced me with another actress. One of the producers didn’t even bother to inform me. It was only when I called them that they told me I had been replaced. I was shocked,” she said. Pooja went on to add that most Punjabi producers want to work with the same set of actresses again and again. “There should be a fair chance given to everyone else too to prove themselves. Just because we have no godfather in the industry, doesn’t mean we should get pushed over like this.”

Pooja also accuses the Punjabi producers of paying poorly to the actors. “Despite five years in this industry, the remuneration they offer me is pittance. In fact, just before the lockdown I was meeting a Punjabi producer for a film and they were kind of dallying over finalizing me over my fee. I agree Punjabi industry is still rising, but what they pay is really meagre,” she said.

Pooja also goes on to talk about the “unprofessionalism” rampant in the industry. “I have had two producers cancel my role because I told them to speak to my manager for finalizing details as I was busy in a shoot. They have such inflated egos that they said, 'we don’t have time to speak to managers and we either talk directly to actors or we take someone else'.”