As the Hindi dubbed version of the popular Netflix reality game show ‘Floor is Lava’ titled ‘Lava ka Dhaava’ is all set to stream on the Netflix platform from May 5, 2021, onwards, the viewers will once again get to experience the trademark Javed Jaffrey brand of humor.
You might already be aware that Javed Jaffrey (son of veteran comedian Jagdeep) had lent his voice for a similarly themed Japanese show called ‘Takeshi’s Castle’, which aired on Pogo TV channel, besides also hosting the popular dance show called ‘Boogie Woogie’.
However, despite acting in umpteen number of films and appearing in many advertisements, the multi-talented actor and undervalued dancer never got the recognition and content-oriented, meatier roles his talent deserved.
The 57-year-old actor had made his acting debut in Subhash Ghai’s 1985 film ‘Meri Jung’ (starring Anil Kapoor). Jaffrey went on to make brief yet meaningful appearances in films like Ketan Mehta’s ‘Oh Darling Yeh Hai India’, Deepa Mehta’s ‘Fire’, Siddharth Anand’s ‘Salaam Namaste’, Samar Khan’s ‘Shaurya’, Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘3 Idiots’ and the more recent comedy film ‘Bala’.
Now, with the advent of over the top streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, SonyLIV, Zee5 amongst others, these platforms will hopefully give a fighting chance to competent actors who either lost their former glory or did not get the right opportunities in the Indian television or film industry. And Javed Jaffrey is certainly one of them.
It is pertinent to mention an interesting analogy here. The Indian entertainment industry consists of these three important components: The Bollywood Industry / Regional Film Industry, the Indian Television Industry and now the OTT platforms. All these industries tap talents from a vast pool of a permutation of budding Indian actors and already established stars.
Likewise, with the advent of the Indian Premier League (IPL) back in the year 2008, myriad Indian cricketers used to play domestic first-class cricket (Ranji Trophy), various Cricket Clubs, etc.
These players dreamt of donning the coveted blue dress of the Indian Cricket Team. And now all these cricketers have been given the golden opportunity to participate in the lucrative IPL Twenty20 cricket league.
So, in a way, what the IPL sporting event has done to domestic cricket players, the same thing OTT platforms can be credited to be doing for struggling Indian actors or veteran actors who never got their due.
We earnestly hope that more Indian actors are given the chance to kickstart or reinvent their acting careers through various streaming platforms in India. Fortunately, it has already started happening and the exciting trend will likely and hopefully continue, eternally.
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