Jigra: Mary Kom Star Accuses Alia Bhatt Film's Team of Casting and Ghosting Him, Says 'Lost Out On...'

Actor Bijou Thaangjam, who was seen in Mary Kom, has made a shocking claim against Alia Bhatt starrer Jigra. The film, which is currently tackling Divya Khossla’s claims of posing fake box office collection, has now been accused of casting a North East actor and ghosting him. Bijou took to X and shared that he received a confirmation about his casting and turned down several offers while waiting for Jigra’s team to call him down to the sets for the shoot.

However, he never got the call. He criticised this behaviour and added that “it felt particularly dismissive, almost discriminatory” as an actor from the North East. “Back in 2023, I was approached by their casting team to audition for a role. I sent my tapes twice over the span of four months, playing along with their timeline. By the end of November, they told me I’d be shooting in December — fantastic, right? Except they never gave me any firm shoot dates. Still, they booked me for the entire month of December, expecting that I’d be ready to shoot for them at any moment. As someone based in Imphal, Manipur, I made it very clear from the start that travel arrangements would need to be made, but that didn’t seem to matter,” he said.

He recalled, “Throughout the month, I was left in the dark, communicating with the casting team but receiving no real updates on when I’d actually be needed. The last message I received was on December 26th, stating ‘Waiting for a revert’, and after that — complete silence. Meanwhile, I’d lost out on other projects because I was sitting around, waiting for them to give me the go-ahead. But of course, that never came.”

The actor said he is aware about the ways of production house’s operations but the whole incident could have been tackled better. “The director is undeniably talented, but the way they handled this entire situation was deeply unprofessional. For actors like me from the Northeast, it felt particularly dismissive, almost discriminatory. My time was wasted, and I missed out on other opportunities just because they expected I’d be available at a moment’s notice,” Bijou said.

He added that he has no ‘agenda’ behind sharing his story. He decided to share only to shed light on the problems that ‘actors like him from the Northeast are often treated by big production houses.’

The team of Jigra is yet to react to the claims.

Jigra is co-produced by Alia Bhatt and Karan Johar’s production houses. The film was directed is directed by Vasan Bala and released on October 11. The film collected Rs 16.75 Cr in its opening weekend.