Arnesh Ghose

<hr>&nbsp;I AM NOT ASHAMED to say that I’ve nursed a fanboy crush on Abhay Deol since I watched him as the adorable crook in Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. There’s something about the guy’s natural affability that makes you always want to root for him. His filmography is any actor’s envy, with intelligent, niche films like Manorama Six Feet Under and Road, Movie (both cult DVD hits), mainstream successes like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and bold experiments like Shanghai, Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local and his tour de force — Dev D — which made him the go-to guy for anything edgy and cerebral. But then, after the debacle that was One By Two, he disappeared. I am literally seeing Deol after two years, because he does not attend parties and functions, nor does he do brand endorsements. ‘&nbsp;He is lankier, with a week-old scruff and a loud, boyish laugh that makes you laugh along with him, even when the joke is not that funny. Deol is one of the very few mainstream actors of our generation who did not run around trees or get into CGI-aided fight sequences, ripping shirts and spitting blood. He struck a fine balance between the commercial (but not necessarily massy) and the intelligent, and became a favourite with the urban crowd. He is posh, no-nonsense and quite the regular Joe — you can connect with him as easily as you connect with your best bud, which is exactly what makes Abhay Deol work. Even those who enjoy massy potboilers don’t necessarily connect with the stars on screen, because the films are usually narcissistic homages to feed the stars’ already bursting-at-its-seams ego. Even as the lead of a film, Abhay Deol has never played the “hero”. Even as a hardened thief or drug-addled spoilt brat, his performances have been natural, logical and empathetic. When I meet him, I sense a lack of worldliness and greed — he is not trying hard to be anything, or impress anyone. The man, quite surprisingly, seems content. Does he know what the future holds in his second innings? Maybe not. But he sure as hell has the confidence to figure his way out again — and on his own terms. I almost want to call Happy Bhag Jayegi his “comeback” (the tabloids’ favourite term for actresses who get back to work after marriage and children), but then again, why can’t film stars take holidays?&nbsp;Welcome back. What have you been up to?&nbsp;Thank you so much. I have been travelling a lot. I suppose in a way it has been great, because when you take a gap year, you get to revisit and reinvent. It has definitely been eventful on a personal front. I travelled a lot. I spent time with my family in the US. I was just living my life. When you are in a creative field, that helps. Whenever I do films back to back, it gets very difficult because you go back to stock emotions. That happens because you haven’t let life happen, you have not been sad in another way.&nbsp;How has the industry reacted to you? You are coming back after two years.&nbsp;I have always kept myself away from the industry. In the beginning, it was not a very open place, and they knew me from my family and I was not doing what&nbsp;my family was doing. And&nbsp;they judge you for what&nbsp;your image is. So, initially,&nbsp;they didn’t quite care about&nbsp;who I was. Then when&nbsp;my films started getting&nbsp;critical and commercial&nbsp;success, they took notice.&nbsp;And because I did not take&nbsp;a mainstream route, the&nbsp;same guys who didn’t think&nbsp;I would be a success, now&nbsp;started to approach me&nbsp;with mainstream offers and&nbsp;I turned them down. I was&nbsp;like, the only reason you are&nbsp;coming to me now is because&nbsp;the non-mainstream work&nbsp;had been successful. Then&nbsp;why should I do mainstream&nbsp;work? That translated as&nbsp;arrogant and egotistical, but&nbsp;my experience had been that.&nbsp;Logic told me this. So, the&nbsp;industry only responds to the&nbsp;way you are. I realise the way&nbsp;the industry was perceiving&nbsp;me. My director, Mudassar&nbsp;[Aziz] of Happy Bhag Jayegi&nbsp;keeps saying that I am&nbsp;always misunderstood. I&nbsp;am upfront, which I think&nbsp;is a polite thing to do,&nbsp;which a lot of people don’t&nbsp;like. But I don’t blame the&nbsp;industry for being resistant&nbsp;to me, because when I was&nbsp;doing experimental work,&nbsp;no one else was. So, I can&nbsp;understand why they did not&nbsp;want to take a chance on me.&nbsp;<img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/9j4od_D_0_Abhay_Deol_Diana_Penty_Ali_Fazal_Happy_Bhag_Jayegi_Movie_Poster_e1471501994417_800x476_d5ad9282f6.jpg">But do you think it would be&nbsp;easier for you to do the kind&nbsp;of films you did, today?&nbsp;I don’t know. No one is&nbsp;making a Dev D, Manorama&nbsp;[Six Feet Under] or an Ek&nbsp;Chaalis [Ki Last Local] even&nbsp;today. I feel it was easier for&nbsp;me to do those films back&nbsp;then. Even for Navdeep&nbsp;[Singh, director of Manorama&nbsp;Six Feet Under], it took seven&nbsp;years to make a NH 10, which&nbsp;is a revenge drama and is&nbsp;as commercial as it gets. A&nbsp;Manorama is so much more&nbsp;layered and subtle than a NH&nbsp;10, which is in your face. If we&nbsp;were doing better, directors&nbsp;like him would be far busier.&nbsp;So what kind of films are you&nbsp;looking at now?&nbsp;The same. Happy Bhag Jayegi&nbsp;is kind of in the same space.&nbsp;While it might have the&nbsp;packaging of a mainstream&nbsp;film, it does not go where&nbsp;you would expect it to, and&nbsp;that is something I love about&nbsp;the film. But yes, if given an&nbsp;opportunity, I would love to&nbsp;do a Manorama or a Shanghai&nbsp;again. I have one project I&nbsp;really like which has come my&nbsp;way, and I hope it gets made.&nbsp;Do you still feel like a misfit&nbsp;in this industry?&nbsp;Yes, I suppose so. It has taken&nbsp;me longer to understand&nbsp;the things which most&nbsp;newcomers today have a&nbsp;clear picture of even before&nbsp;they come in — and I was&nbsp;born into the industry, you&nbsp;know, which makes this even&nbsp;more ironic. What I saw as&nbsp;a kid growing up were the&nbsp;things I wanted to avoid. And&nbsp;I have. But those are the very&nbsp;things that people want. So&nbsp;the things I wanted to avoid&nbsp;are the things you usually&nbsp;want if you want success.&nbsp;<img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/6494mqnglm5ktvxj_D_0_Abhay_Deol_as_Bilal_Ahmed_in_Movie_Happy_Bhag_Jayegi_450x600_bbb820a515.jpg">&nbsp;Why hasn’t theatre ever &nbsp;been on the radar for you?&nbsp;I haven’t done theatre. In&nbsp;college, yes, and a couple&nbsp;of workshops afterwards,&nbsp;but nothing more than that.&nbsp;I have worked on the craft&nbsp;from a theatrical approach,&nbsp;but theatre and film are&nbsp;different. And theatre is hard&nbsp;work and I am a lazy bastard&nbsp;(laughs). And it is a longer&nbsp;commitment too.&nbsp;What’s the last film you saw&nbsp;and loved?&nbsp;I have hardly been watching&nbsp;films. I don’t think I have&nbsp;watched a film in the last two&nbsp;years, and if I have, I have&nbsp;forgotten. I do watch stuff on&nbsp;long flights, but that’s when&nbsp;you catch the rom-coms and&nbsp;animations. You want to save&nbsp;the good films for the big&nbsp;screen, and I never end up&nbsp;watching them.&nbsp;What are you reading these&nbsp;days?&nbsp;This book called Sialkot Saga&nbsp;that I picked up recently.&nbsp;Does stress work as a form&nbsp;of motivation for you?&nbsp;I don’t like stress. And I don’t&nbsp;think there is a thing called&nbsp;positive stress, because&nbsp;stress by its very nature is&nbsp;negative. I can understand&nbsp;why a little bit of nervousness&nbsp;and anxiety might be good,&nbsp;those are states of mind. But&nbsp;stress is the materialisation of&nbsp;anxiety. See, I like what I do,&nbsp;so I don’t need motivation&nbsp;because it is already there. It&nbsp;is like asking what makes you&nbsp;eat. When you are hungry,&nbsp;you eat. It is a part of your&nbsp;natural process. Making&nbsp;movies is a part of my natural&nbsp;process.&nbsp;<img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/dev_d_15e_e1471501843480_800x437_4c59365b5e.jpg">&nbsp;Dev D&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;So, in these last two years,&nbsp;you haven’t felt motivated&nbsp;enough?&nbsp;I wasn’t — true that. And I&nbsp;think spending the two years&nbsp;outside work gave me the&nbsp;motivation again. It’s been a&nbsp;while since I have done a film,&nbsp;so now this one will release&nbsp;and we’ll see how it goes.&nbsp;Does that matter?&nbsp;For the industry, yes. It&nbsp;matters to me because&nbsp;it matters to others who&nbsp;will invest in me. It doesn’t&nbsp;matter personally. I have&nbsp;done my job. It is not just&nbsp;making a movie that makes&nbsp;it a success. So, for example,&nbsp;Manorama flopped when it&nbsp;came out. It made it more&nbsp;difficult for me to get the&nbsp;next film. But it became a cult&nbsp;hit on DVDs. The audience&nbsp;needs to understand that&nbsp;when they don’t invest in&nbsp;these films, what it is telling&nbsp;the industry is that these&nbsp;films are not liked by the&nbsp;audience. They don’t give a&nbsp;shit about DVD sales.&nbsp;But you’re hungry again?&nbsp;Yeah (laughs).

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After a two-year sabbatical, which is virtually unheard of in this industry, the offbeat Deol is back in business — sharper, wiser and raring to go.