New Delhi, Oct 3 (IANS): He started off as a lover boy, but over a period of 11 years he has gone on to play intense roles. Actor Jimmy Shergill describes his progress as slow and steady - something that helped him grow as an actor in a fast-changing industry.
"Bollywood is changing big time; you can see that different kinds of films are being made. One is typical hardcore commercial, then masala cinema and then you see a lot of unconventional films doing well. The industry has indeed seen a lot of changes," said Jimmy who has also been doing a lot of Punjabi cinema.
Jimmy is currently being seen in "Sahib Biwi Gangster" and now he is busy shooting for Vikram Bhatt's "Dangerous Ishq", which will see Karisma Kapoor making a comeback on the big screen.
"My journey has been slow and steady. I have always tried to find a balance, from a commercial set of films to unusual ones. Sometimes you get a lot of acclaim from the unusual films and I think that kind of films helped me grow as an actor," Jimmy told IANS.
"I would say my progress has been okay. I don't think I have reached a stage where I can say I have progressed. I am somewhere in the middle. I am yet to reach that stage where I can say my progress has been fruitful," he added.
Jimmy made his Bollywood debut with "Maachis" but he rose to limelight as a lover boy in Yash Raj's "Mohabbatein". Since then he has done a variety of roles in films like "Munna Bhai MBBS" and "Lage Raho Munnabhai" and gradually gone on to play intense roles in "Delhi Heights" and "A Wednesday".
"It was a deliberate attempt not to get stuck in one particular image but at the same time I was offered such kind of roles, so I grabbed the opportunity," said Jimmy.
Jimmy has seen ups and downs in his career, and the 40-year-old actor says he has learned to move on.
"The best part of this profession is that it teaches you to move on. One film is releasing, it does well or doesn't do well, you moved on to another one. It takes away all the attention from all that thing and helps overcome the pressures," he said.
However, he admits an individual feels bad if a film doesn't work.
"Each time a film doesn't do well you feel sad about it because you put in so much of hard work on that film, and especially those that you believed in," he said.
"You feel 'I really wanted this film to do well because I loved the film, I loved the script and enjoyed working on it. I felt that this character was very nice'. When it doesn't work you do feel low, but then as I said you move on," he added.