A push for documentaries, courtesy Bollywood's Jaaved Jaaferi

He is known for comedy as well as his dance moves. But actor Jaaved Jaaferi has now taken a serious plunge into documentary making - through his own company.

"Indian Documentary Foundation is a non-profit organisation that will help raise funds for financing and marketing documentary films, create awareness and raise the bar for Indian documentaries," Jaaved told IANS in an interview on phone from Mumbai.

He ventured into documentary making as co-producer of "Inshallah, Football" and Jaaved hopes to create a market for such movies that act as an eye-opener and share hard-hitting information.

"Documentaries act as an eye-opener and say a lot about society, whether it's 'Malegaon Ka Superhero' or 'Final Solution'. These films provide some amazing and hard-hitting information in a condensed form. There are so many different areas that they touch upon, which people are not actually aware of," he added.

The actor has recently completed making a documentary, but refuses to divulge details. The 48-year-old blames the "escapist" attitude of people for the dwindling state of documentary filmmaking.

"Internationally, documentaries have a niche. They always have regular shows, but a documentary in India is far behind. Indian people somewhere have become too escapist. They are not ready to see what is happening around them," said Jaaved, the son of veteran actor-comedian Jagdeep.

" 'Final Solution' was an eye-opener of the political system of India but it was banned," he added.

Jaaved admits it's a huge misconception that documentaries are boring and only cater to an intellectual audience. He hopes to create a market for documentary filmmaking through his initiative.

"If the story is told in a right way, a documentary is not only entertaining but informative as well. We have to act as responsible citizens. To think that such films are just for the intellectual audience is very irresponsible on our part," said Jaaved, who has been a part of films like "Singh Is Kinng", "3 Idiots" and "Double Dhamaal".

"We have to make content. Our whole idea to build a market for documentaries is by selling DVDs etc and people are ready to pay for it. It is important for us to create a medium for documentaries so they can get the right platform," he added.

The actor believes that people's urge to earn money is responsible for documentaries not getting their due.

"Everyone is moneyminded, whether it's TV or cinema, which is not right. There is some social responsibility also. If they provide even a 30-minute slot to documentaries to be broadcast on TV, it could work wonders, but everywhere there is money involved," said Jaaved, who has also judged popular dance reality show "Boogie Woogie" on small screen.

-Priyanka Sharma