Manipur actor Bijou Thaangjam opened up on Monday about the unprofessional behavior by Jigra makers and shared how he was left hanging by the casting team after being finalised for a role in the Alia Bhatt starrer.

He took to social media to write that he was told to remain available in the month of December to shoot for the film but never got an update later. Bijou also noted that he doesn’t want to create a controversy by telling his story but just wanted to speak up.

He said, “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 would be shooting in December — fantastic, right? Except they never gave me any firm shoot dates.”

He added, “Still, they booked me for the entire month of December, expecting that I would 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 further said how he lost other projects due this. “Meanwhile, I had 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.”

Bijou added that as an actor from Northeast, it felt ‘particularly dismissive and discriminatory’. “I understand how big production houses operate. The director is undeniably talented, but the way they handled this entire situation was deeply unprofessional,” he said.

Jigra released in theatres on October 11. It has been in the eye of controversy as last week, actor Divya Khossla called out Alia and producer Karan Johar for inflating the box office collections for Jigra. She accused the team of getting paid reviews done, and also buying tickets just to tamper with box office numbers.

The film also stars Manoj Pahwa, Rahul Ravindran and Vivek Gomber.