For most of us, Shrey Bhargava came to public scrutiny in 2017, when he famously rejected a request to do a more exaggerated Indian accent at an audition for Jack Neo’s Ah Boys To Men 4.
The reaction from netizens was heated to say the least. Blogger and social media personality Xiaxue wrote a Facebook post with the header ‘BREAKING: SHREY BHARGAVA NEWLY DEMISED ACTING CAREER’ that ended with, “So screw you Shrey.”
But Shrey stood by his decision, and his NEWLY DEMISED ACTING CAREER only grew from strength to strength, culminating in his triumph for Best Supporting Actor for Singapore in the Asian Creative Academy Awards last year, narrowly losing out to Indonesian veteran Teuku Rifnu Wikana. He has played some truly memorable roles – as the over-the-top filmmaker Vijay Kapoor (for which he won the Asian Creative Academy Award) in Titoudao, as Sergeant Manoj in the thrilling whodunnit Come Closer, and as George Singam in This Land is Mine.
Most of those who criticised him tended to be people in positions of privilege within the framework of the media and entertainment industry. But for most minorities who worked in the industry, Shrey’s decision was a beacon of hope. For decades before we got woke as a society, most minority characters were reduced to stereotypes, or shallow indicators of character, such as accents, clothes and mannerisms.
“Looking back, I think what I did to start the conversation around minority representation in media was important. And I do believe now we are seeing some lasting changes in how minority characters on screen are written, and how the casting process is growing to be more inclusive,” he says. But he does take responsibility for the furore he caused. “Could I have been more tactful then in going about the conversation? 100% Yes – a Facebook post perhaps isn’t the most conducive way to have a fruitful discussion and/or a significant immediate impact. To be honest, I did not expect the post to go viral at that point. I was using Facebook the way many of us did in the 2010s – my personal diary. It is what it is though, and I’m grateful that in the end our industry has grown the way it has in all these years.”
The thing about Shrey that we truly love is his focus and dedication to his craft. There is, of course, a lot of noise around him, but when it comes to disappearing into a character and bringing him to life, not many in Singapore are quite as skilled as Shrey.
We dare say he was born for it. He tells us, “Acting was always my safe space where I could play freely, and using my imagination that way came very naturally to me from a young age. The ‘aha!’ moment came when I was 15 and I won my first ‘Best Actor’ award in school for a show and was told that the reason I won was that I was the only actor then that was not just acting on my lines, but was ‘reacting’ the rest of the time too.”
“To me, it seemed blatantly obvious, and nothing special – I was living the part.”
