Abhay Deol: OG A-B of Bollywood indie

Shortly after our conversation before a live audience Abhay Deol is scheduled to meet Shekhar Krishnamoorthy the person he plays in the Netflix series Trial by Fire mdash based on the life of a middleclass Delhi couple who fought the cityrsquos top realestate developers post the death of both their children in the 1997 Uphaar Cinema fire tragedyWhich is also when we realise Deol had chosen to consciously stay away from the reallife inspiration for his part during the process of making the series Deol is Punjabi by ancestry unlike Krishnamoorthy with the most Tamil surname In fact Deol has played a Tamilian before thisThat was as the bureaucrat Krishnan for Dibakar Banerjeersquos Shanghai 2012 In an episode dedicated to Deolrsquos films on a podcast named Khabardaar that I was listening to before meeting the actor the hosts mdash shoutout to wonderful ladies Aparita Bhandari Baisakhi Roymdashmake an observation on Deolrsquos walk onscreen They believe it is the same in all his films Except Shanghai if you notice the minutiaeFirstly does he agree and was that consciously so I ask Deol ldquoThere are physical characteristics that I suppose you donrsquot change easily Yoursquore unaware of them With Shanghai that may be true Not that I consciously worked on my walk though I did have to work on my accent Krishnan is a Tamil BrahminldquoAnd I had to put on a Hindi like a Tamilian would speak it which is hard to find Because no Tamilian really speaks Hindi mdash they speak to you in English Also we donrsquot have an infrastructure of accent training for actors in our country So we found this outofwork Tamilian writer who I worked with and developed a system for itrdquoIf we must get deeper into this accent thing still for instance Deol recalls ldquoI hope I havenrsquot mixed up my memory but I was really working on the phonetics mdash there is no lsquoharsquo sound in Tamil and there is no lsquobarsquo In Tamil you could pronounce my name closer to lsquoApaayrsquo Stuff like that was insightful This is besides mimicking my accenttrainer offcamera mdash so I would know how he might say my dialoguesrdquoThe ladies of Khabardaar podcast might wanna notice this the next time they watch Shanghai Krsihnamoorthy in Trial by Fire Deol points out is different from Krishnan because hersquos a Tamilian but essentially from DelhiALso ReadlsquoManicured heroes arenrsquot inspiringrsquo says Trial By Fire director Prashant NairAbhay Deol and Rajshri Deshpande in Trial by Fire which is based on the 1997 Uphaar cinema fire tragedyHe has what one could call a more neutrally North Indian or lsquoDelhirsquo Which is also a character Deol has played in Oye Lucky Lucky Oye OLLO mdash another reallife person he obviously didnrsquot meet before playing him on screen Bunty Chor was the local swindler where would you find himOLLO 2008 tragically released in theatres when the ldquothe firings were still onrdquo during 2611 terror attacks in Mumbai My favourite memory of OLLO is an offscreen one from the filmrsquos BTS video online where a dog is after Bunty Chor Deol whorsquos jumping off a tall buildinggate Banerjee asks him to turn around for the camera so the audience knows the lead actor performed this himself instead of a bodydoubleDeol says ldquoItrsquos fun doing stunts as much as I can I think Dibakar was a bit surprised about how easily I was scaling such a large gate and he said he wanted people to see itrdquoSticking to Delhi and characters inspired by actual eventspeople still how about Anurag Kashyaprsquos DevD 2009 I learnt this much after watching the film that the role was in fact somewhat based on Deolrsquos own life Meaning obsession in love and indeed experiments with drugs If true kindly elaborateStills from Socha Na Tha 2005ldquoWell I wanted to contemporize the Sarat Chandra Chatterjee book because I felt there was something wrong there mdash with such a male patriarchal view of a manwoman relationship where women are falling over Devdas No matter what he does he can never be wrong I grew up in an environment where drugs and alcohol were all availableldquoMy Chanda Kalkirsquos character was far stronger than what eventually got made into the movie She was an East European poledancing escort who is fine the way she is mdash making great money traveling the world She takes pity on him DevObviously it worked for Anurag that she was as vulnerable as he Dev and she was a victim too For me he was the only victim The women only grew stronger from thererdquo Did he know the Polish escort ldquoI am not going to tell you I know all sorts of people letrsquos just put it that way Yeah I know a few escorts lsquonrsquo allrdquo Letrsquos pause at the movie titles here Banerjeersquos Shanghai OLLO Kashyaprsquos DevD Also from a time when both Kashyap and Banerjee were the lsquonewage filmmakersrsquo early on in their directorial careers I wonder what Deol thinks of the trajectory they took thereafterFrankly he doesnrsquot have much to say besides ldquoconforming to commercial pressurerdquo that becomes inevitable in some cases He could sense the ldquocreative genius of Banerjee in LSD 2010rdquo As for Kashyap I find it surprising that he hasnrsquot seen any of his films since DevD Not even Gangs of Wasseypur 2012 What did they have a fallout or something I askShanghai 2012ldquoWell Kashyap went in public and said a lot of lies about merdquo For example ldquoOne lie was that I demanded a fivestar hotel room during the shoot of DevD He had actually come up to me and said lsquoListen you canrsquot stay with us you are a Deol So I want to put you up in a hotel roomrsquo He literally told me that What he told the press was that I demanded itrdquo The reference here is to Deolrsquos profile published in Huffington Post June 5 2020He continues ldquoSo there was clearly a lot going on at the time which was not professional I had my heart on my sleeve and all that is great mdash but you get taken advantage of and then you get reactive So he Kashyap was a good lesson for me Then I just avoided him because I donrsquot need toxic people in my life Life is too short and there is so much more to explore But he Kashyap is definitely a liar and a toxic person And I would warn people about himrdquoThis outburst is evidently in response to Kashyaprsquos quote about Deol in the Huffington Post report Deol adds later ldquoI donrsquot look in the past When Anurag said that crap about me in public he sent me lsquoapologyrsquo messagesldquoHe does that all the time He was like lsquoYou want to shout at me scream at mehelliprsquo And I was like lsquoI donrsquot care Itrsquos been 12 years You donrsquot feature in my thoughts even now get over itrsquo He said lsquoForgive me because I have had a bad dayrsquoAbhay Deol with Anurag Kashyap Kalki Koechlin and Mahie Gill during the promotions of Dev D 2009ldquoI said you are forgiven I never had a personal agenda It was far bigger than just me That is how I feel about everything How much of this is he going to do And I would have never taken his name and said the things had he not gone public eitherrdquoRaking this up is important only because lead actors or stars have always been the medium to tell stories on screen mdash even if in the offstream space so to say And by the mid Noughties Deol was at the centre if not the pioneer of a movement of sorts within Bollywoodmdashpicking up young untested directors to star in their scriptsfilms on a leap of faith firstldquoThe first five movies of mine were all by firsttime directorsrdquo he recalls Letrsquos pause again to name these debutants Imtiaz Ali Socha Na Tha Shivam Nair Ahista Ahista Reema Kagti Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd Sanjay Khanduri Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local Navdeep Singh Manorama Six Feet UnderThese are also films that got defined as Hindi commercial cinema merging with an entertaining arthouse mdash lsquoHindiesrsquo if you like At least a couple of the directors did fairly well for themselves mdash after that firm footing in the film industryI can see why itrsquos got Deol a lirsquol pissed off now that I want him to dwell on what he thinks of their careers as well mdash he did like Alirsquos Jab We Met more than Rockstar which in turn was still outside Alirsquos usual ldquolovetriangle zonerdquo and therefore a stepup ldquoWhy am I commenting on all this mdash is that what the showconversation is aboutrdquo Of course notAbhay Deol with Hrithik Roshan and Farhan Akhtar in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara 2011I guess what wersquore getting at is an oft repeated jibe that a lot of these directors mdash take Ali for example who got his debut due to Deol mdash never worked with him thereafter Is that a fair observation with anything deeper to itldquoAnd Anurag used to say this is why directors donrsquot work with mehellip I know a lot of actors donrsquot want to work with him But I see what you mean Or where you are coming from I did sense this feeling later towards me lsquoYou know you are not big enoughrsquoldquoWhich is ironic because when I worked with them neither were they You either believe in someone or a vision mdash even if it goes against the norm Or you can say I will keep my vision but I will acquire bigger powers to execute it Because I will get more money I suppose Also I was taking a lot of it on myself and I know I made mistakes I am searching for answers to give you and I hate making it about me when itrsquos about somebody elserdquoConsider the career graph In terms of boxoffice plus cultgrade Zoya Akhtarrsquos multistarrer Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara 2011 is possibly Deolrsquos high point A string of seriously superb films right before and after And then there is s sharp slump 2013 onwards almost a freefallHersquos had a release almost every year So hersquos very much been around since The filmsseries are again by mostly firsttime directors or fresh talents at any rate experimental in their own rightYou can have your views on say One By Two 2014 Happy Bhaag Jayegi 2016 Nanu Ki Jaanu 2018 Chopsticks 2019 What Are The Odds 2019hellip Good or bad is a subjective take anyway But you know none of them are really well did he lose his mojo how do I put ithellipldquoItrsquos just a fact You donrsquot have to justify your questionrdquo Deol comes to my rescue As for the kind of work that comes your way he says ldquoEverything is a collective call And I donrsquot like talking about it because I donrsquot want to come across sounding bitter or a victim I donrsquot care But when you take a stand then you take a stand And that has consequences Are you ready to face those consequencesrdquoExactly what stand for example could do someone in ldquoI donrsquot know Calling out people for endorsing fairness creamsrdquo Would that mean those who endorse fairness creams would debar you right awayldquoIt is not as simple as that I did a guest appearance in Shah Rukhrsquos Zero and he is a really dignified man But there is a collective thing that happens Say showing up with a black eye on a red carpet and calling out Bhushan Kumar by name and saying TSeries blah blah Or constantly saying why do we only have song and dance in our filmshelliprdquoDeol has been equally vocal in public about critiquing his own films with misplaced intentions mdash whether that be Aisha 2010 or Raanjhanaa 2013 Surely thatrsquos hardly mastering the art of winning friends and influencing people But you can tellmdashfrankly he doesnrsquot give a damn And thatrsquos what makes him more fun than the current crop of polite suckers for boring heroesAlso some of his criticisms could emanate from ideas he wished to champion but found no takers around that time Navdeep Singhrsquos Basra famously got shelved As did a zombie comedy called Rock the Shaadi after shoot I fish out an old video of him consulting a tarot card reader in Simi Garewalrsquos TV show mdash to check if one of his dream projects would come trueDeol remembers it was an international film with debutant filmmakers from abroad who nobody wanted to put money on They still havenrsquot made the film and he had to stop trying eventuallyldquoSo yeah post 2013 it was tough I also took a backseat Now I donrsquot want to go back and pretend like nothing ever happened or be a different person mdash so I am going to sit back and see what comes my way And quietly work If that works it works If it doesnrsquot so be itrdquoAs for the socalled song and dance Deol says itrsquos not like he has an issue with the genre ldquoAt least three ideas of mine are full of songs One of them was DevD 18 numbers in the soundtrackrdquoThe film was a major winner at the boxoffice for its budget Deol remembers ldquoEspecially after Oye Lucky and Dev D I had a redcarpet entry to whoever I wanted to work with And this is not just because I had successes behind me Also because I was soandsorsquos son nephew brotherhelliprdquoWhich puts him in a strange lsquomiddlersquo in the nepotism debate that is usually conflated to the lsquoelite versus massesrsquo battle pitched in the wider politicalpublic space Deolrsquos ldquoanger and rebellionrdquo within the family itself he says was his reaction to fame and its pitfalls Something he had watched closely growing up Left to him it appears hersquod rather be anonymous but remain an actor mdash obviously a misnomerldquoI was born an insider but I pretty much lived as an outsiderrdquo says Deol That said his debut film was a jointfamily release from Vijayta Productions mdash mainly helmed by cousin Sunny son of Uncle DharmendraInterested in debutant Alirsquos script he took him to meet Sunny who was happy to hop onboard the film since the lead character was a lot like Abhay himself Such is how Socha Na Tha was born and two amazing careers took off Only the film that released during the lowkey ldquoexamtime Marchrdquo wasnrsquot hugely promoted as the proverbial lsquostar is bornrsquo Socha Na Tha is hugely loved stillWhich reminds me why is the Deol firm named Vijayta in the first place ldquoOn my sister my cousin mdash she is younger to Sunny Bhaiya So itrsquos Sunny Deol Vijeta and Bobby Deol ldquoNo Then there is another sister Ajeita Then there is BobbyrdquoAbhayrsquos father late Ajit Singh Deol Dharmendrarsquos brother I hear was also an actor Except I couldnrsquot quite find a clip online to support this I tell him He smiles ldquoHe did two movies one of which he produced They were all in the rsquo70s One never got made ldquoI remember Honey Aunty Zoyarsquos Akhtar mum said the cutest thing to me once That my father is the reason her film didnrsquot release I was like lsquoWhat do you meanrsquo She said that he had to hold her face and he was shivering through the scene She was the leading lady in that film I didnrsquot even know it because I never saw that movierdquoInsideroutsider is anyway a timegeneration construct Many of the outsiders Deol worked with at the beginning of his career are bonafide insiders now And maybe thatrsquos what the revolt is about mdash to eventually get to the high table The cycle continuesldquoYou hit success then it doesnrsquot matter if yoursquore insider or outsider They all want to work with you You have to understand it is also very cliquish mdash you are part of this or that camp I had access to all of them but I was like nordquoLiving in the Deol household he also had no ldquoBollywood Juhu gangrdquo friends Barring his schoolmate director Vikramaditya Motwane who wasnrsquot ldquoBollywood thenrdquoEveryone goes through their brash 20s mdash sometimes it lasts longer mdash ldquoYou wanna change the worldrdquo I asked Deol what he thinks of when he looks back at that decade after which it appears the world changes you 0ne way or the otherSome of the things he says hersquos learnt is being diplomatic mdashldquoalso not equating power and money with corruption mdash that neednrsquot always be the case Money is like energy and it is something that you know you can make good use of mdash when you have a lot of it I could do things a little smarter to not be taken advantage of or be gaslitldquoHuman condition is complex Everything we have spoken about today are not black and white You would think yoursquove heard it all There was a lot left out Also I am really lucky I know I did create lot of trouble but it was all intended for the right purpose And I created change People still refer to films I did 1015 years agordquoWhich is true once you glance at his filmography until 2013 starting 2005 mdash those who were born that year turn into adults in 2023 when wersquore making this conversation with Deol 46Also in the intervening years so much has changed with films itself ldquoThe disruption we were looking at got brought in by technology itselfrdquo So the lsquomultiplex moviersquo became lsquoOTT contentrsquoAlso the Bollywood indie started hitting Rs 100 crore collections with the likes of Ayushmann Khurrana Rajkummar Rao Deol was the OG lsquoOTT starrsquo even before there were streamers ldquoI am not done yet Maybe what I did was 20 years ahead of its time Those 20 years have comerdquo Only the intentions may not be matching the outcomes for some timeAnd then you watch Deol in Prashant Nairrsquos Trial By Fire on Netflix mdash a performance so subconsciously chilled yet powerful Without once making an unnecessary show of it The series on the Uphaar Cinema fire tragedy is still about subtle and solid storytelling that therefore makes the leads the stars Fair to say welcome back AbhayWatch the full interview here