Bjelogrlić talked about how he and Kojo managed to earn from 500 to 1,000 marks from one performance at a time when actors were paid 15 marks.
Source: ATA Images/Radule Perišić
Dragan Bjelogrlić managed something that few people in his profession have managed to do – to be successful as an actor, but also as a director and producer. It is not uncommon for actors to want to stand behind the camera and try their hand as producers or directors. What sets Bjela apart from many others is that he has had lower success in all three fields for years. As an actor, he has not retired, except that he now chooses what he will play more and more carefully. Especially in the theater, where we can only see him in the BDP play “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, where he has been playing masterfully for almost 20 years.
As a producer, he also proved himself on several occasions – starting with the films “Beautiful Villages Beautifully Gore”, “Rane”, “Toma”, and ending with the series “Vratiće se Rode”, “Marked in the Racket”, “Shadows over the Balkans”. His last film, in which he is signed both as an actor and as a director and also as a producer – “Guardians of the formula” – will be premiered at one of the largest European film festivals in Locarno (Switzerland) within the prestigious program – Piaca Grande.
But what few people know is that the decision to engage in production work was made in one of the worst and most uncertain moments in which not only his profession but also Serbia found itself. Those were the years of war, sanctions and poverty. And just then, 30 years ago, Bjela made the decision to return to Serbia from America and found her own production company.
BJELA DISCOVERED FOR THE FIRST TIME: Nikola Kojo and I EARNED FROM 500 TO 1,000 MARKS from one performance of the play! Here’s how…
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“In 1993, most of my generation fled, left the country, because of everything that was happening in our country at that time. I had this dilemma after the tour of the film “The Black Bomber” in America. He participated in several of those film festivals. After that I stayed in the USA because there were already enough of my friends who settled there. I was 28-29 years old then. I wanted to see if I could find myself somewhere outside of Serbia. After 2- 3 months in the USA I came to one essential conclusion for some essential decisions in my life. In America you understand one thing and that is that mostly, at least when it comes to my profession, you have to create everything yourself or with a certain group of people, that you have to manage with your career and that your economic position is the most important in all of that. In 1993, I realized that if I wanted to stay in America, I would have to do various stupid jobs, none of which were related to my profession. From delivering mail to working as a waiter to earn some money and wait for your chance. I saw that it is necessary to invest a lot of effort, a lot of work and energy if you might not be able to do something about your professional engagement. And then I thought about it and said to myself, well, why wouldn’t I use that effort, energy and work in Serbia, as it is, and do what is my life commitment?“, Bjelogrlić once said in the show “Everything that belongs to me”.
He noted that immediately upon his arrival from America, he decided that he would try to have his own private production and that he would create his own projects.
“Of course, I decided to continue and do my main occupation, but I wanted to make my own way and achieve a certain independence when it comes to work. And I succeeded. And the set of circumstances happened such that Lale Pavlović brought the text of the play “My Darling”. He wanted me and Nikola Kojo to play it. I immediately suggested to Koji that we do it ourselves. And that’s how the adventure related to the production began. But it was an essential and key decision in my life. That decision turned out to be a good one when it came to the financial side of the story, even in those nineties. I know that many artists don’t like to talk about money publicly, they prefer to talk about art, but I don’t know anyone who talks about money anymore from artists. And that’s because they don’t have them and because they’re burdened by it. In those years, with that decision of mine, I managed to ensure absolute freedom and independence from everything that was happening in my profession. Nikola Kojo and I managed to do one play, at a time when actors earned some miserable salaries of 15-20 marks, from which he and I earned from 500 to 1,000 marks just from one performance. Just because we did it ourselves“, Bjelogrlić said then.
As a reminder, the play “Moja draga” was a real theater hit at the time, and in addition to Bjela and Koja, Dubravka Mijatović and Branka Katić were also in the cast.
(WORLD)