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00:00Hi everyone, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan, Entertainment Editor for Gulf News.
00:09I'm here with Bollywood's bad man of the moment, Bobby Deol.
00:13He impressed us in Animal, it was a comeback of sorts.
00:17And he's back with another big one, a warrior epic called Kangooa with Surya.
00:21It's a big one, right?
00:22Your Tamil debut?
00:23Yes, it is.
00:24I mean, I'm just so excited.
00:25I mean, what better way to start your career in the Tamil industry with a film like Kangooa
00:31and to work with Surya, who I'm a big fan of, who's a sweetheart.
00:35He's just an amazing person, you know.
00:37The best part about being on the set was getting to know people and how down to earth and humble
00:42they are, especially Surya.
00:44The whole team, you know, everyone involved in the film was just so warm.
00:48I didn't feel, you know, out of place, they saw to it that I was always, you know, comfortable
00:54and it was just an amazing experience.
00:55Right.
00:56Bobby, this movie was offered before Animal became this huge blockbuster, right?
01:00Yeah, the whole story goes back where they spoke to me in May of the same year and somehow
01:08things didn't work out, but I manifested it.
01:10I said, I have to do this film.
01:12And then suddenly, just before Animal was releasing, it worked out.
01:17I was just so happy, you know, because I believe in manifestation, you know.
01:22So I'm really lucky.
01:23God has been kind and my wishes are coming true in some way.
01:27Very true.
01:28Very true.
01:29I was speaking to Arjun Kapoor yesterday.
01:30He was saying that finally people are like taking me seriously.
01:33Is that the same with you as well?
01:34With Animal, it kind of changed?
01:35I think it changed for me when I started doing OTT platform.
01:38It changed for me when I did films like Class of 83, then I did Ashram, which became a huge
01:43success.
01:44It's the only web series that's the most watched in India.
01:47And then I did Love Hostel.
01:48So that made people notice that I'm capable of more, I think.
01:52And I think it's happening for a lot of actors who work on OTT platform, because OTT platform,
01:57you can take an actor whose image is something else, but make him do something else if they
02:01believe in you.
02:02And I was very lucky.
02:03I mean, out of those three projects I did on OTT, two of them were produced by Red Chilli.
02:08Then Prakashji, I don't know what he saw in me, but he chose me for Ashram.
02:12So things started shifting for me.
02:15People started looking at me differently.
02:16And then Animal happened.
02:20You know, there's no magic like silver screen.
02:22The magic that silver screen creates is something else.
02:25And I needed that.
02:26And I don't know, Sandeep Reddy Vanga, who's a genius of a director, saw something in a
02:32photograph of mine and gave me Animal.
02:34Then I was lucky because I'm trying to do different kinds of films, putting myself out
02:40of my comfort zone.
02:41And when this was offered, it was totally out of my comfort zone, especially because
02:45it's in Tamil.
02:46Also, it's very different.
02:48You know, it's based on a period which is a thousand years back.
02:52Civilization was not fully civilized.
02:54That's why the look, the clothes we're wearing and this are based according to that period
02:59and a very animalistic behavior.
03:01Yeah.
03:02Like a beast.
03:03Yeah, like a beast.
03:04So that's how we behave.
03:05That's the reason why you see the anger in the eyes and the lust in life, body language,
03:09you know.
03:10So it was fun.
03:11It was tough, but it was fun.
03:12Right.
03:13Are you a Game of Thrones fan as well?
03:15Sometimes when I see these, I'm like I'm reminded of it, but I'm sure it's a different thing.
03:18I think there's so much happening out there in the cinematic world that something will
03:24always remind you of something, you know, and something will always encourage you to
03:27do something.
03:28Yeah.
03:29So I think all those kind of movies and shows encourage actors, producers and directors
03:35to create that world.
03:37And Shiva is a genius himself.
03:39I think the most calmest director I've ever worked with.
03:42Really?
03:43Why do you say that?
03:44He's like a chubby big man and he's always calm.
03:48He's got a heart of gold.
03:50He never got angry, never raised his voice.
03:55He had to deal with 3,000 people at the unit plus the whole scenario was there's water,
04:00there's smoke, there's dust, there's a lot of chaos.
04:04But in that chaos to stay so relaxed is amazing.
04:07Right.
04:08You know, and as a visionary, he's created this world because when I was shooting for
04:11this film, there was only blue walls behind me.
04:15And I was like, okay, it's going to look like this.
04:17He says, so you wait and watch when I show it to you.
04:19And then when I see the trailers and the promos, I'm like, God, I was there, you know, and
04:23it's looking totally like as if I was somewhere else.
04:26Right.
04:27It's just amazing.
04:28Right.
04:29Interestingly, at the press con, you said 30 years ago, like you didn't when you began
04:32your career, you were not that I would say ambitious, perhaps, or you were not petty
04:35or petty enough.
04:37My family and we all are very simple people.
04:39I never believed that there was competition.
04:41I always believed that everybody should be working.
04:44Why should I take someone else's work?
04:46But the world was like changing, you know, and there was so much competition, there were
04:49more people coming into the industry.
04:51It just changed, you know, and I just didn't realize that that kind of put me down.
04:58But I think finally, I'm almost 55 right now and suddenly I have this fire that's burning
05:04so strong.
05:05I wish this fire was burning strong from word go.
05:08I love that.
05:09Your career is also a testament to anybody can have a great, you know, rise at no, you
05:15never know, like when your career changes, it shifts track, isn't it?
05:18That's what I keep saying.
05:19Everybody should just have self-belief, you know, if you don't have self-belief, you won't
05:22be able to, no one's going to hold your hand and take you forward.
05:25You have to do it on your own two feet and you just have to stay positive because everybody's
05:31gifted with something by God, you know, you have that special talent, you just need to
05:36tap it.
05:37And I think that's what's happened to me, certainly, you know.
05:40Right.
05:41At 55 to look like this.
05:42Let's just admire him for a second.
05:44It must have not been easy at 55.
05:47I think my whole family is into fitness.
05:49My dad, my brother, the first he-man of the industry was my dad.
05:53And the first strongest man in the industry was my brother.
05:57So I think I had to, you know, match up to their physicality in that sense, because it
06:04is important to be healthy and the older you get, you need to keep working out more because
06:08it keeps you stronger.
06:09Right.
06:10I think that's something I love.
06:13And I realized everything very late in life.
06:15Excellent.
06:16Do you think this is their way of tapping into the northern market, though?
06:20When I looked at it, it looks like, you know, they're trying to rope in viewers from around,
06:24make it more pan-India.
06:25It has become pan-India now, because if you see the amount of films that have come out,
06:29you know, so many films from South are very pan-Indian films.
06:32So I think the trend has changed completely.
06:35It's all because, I mean, sadly, we had to go through the whole COVID and that exposed
06:40a lot of people to watch movies and content on OTT platform and expose them to different
06:46language films, you know, and they realize there's so much there to watch.
06:50I think that's changed.
06:51And even Bhau Bali, when it came, I think that was the beginning of everything.
06:55How physically grueling was this?
06:57Because you roar a lot.
06:58Like you said, it's like a wild animal.
07:00Well, it was, I mean, I mean, people think actor's life is very easy, but it isn't.
07:05It is, when you're on location, it's going to be hot, it's going to be dusty and it's
07:10going to be, you know, like humid.
07:12But here it was created even further.
07:14There was storm fans with smoke being thrown at you and dust being thrown at you.
07:19And then you had to do prosthetics, which took two hours every time you had to get ready.
07:25But it was fun.
07:26It was fun.
07:27Worth it?
07:28Yeah, it was.
07:29It's always worth it.
07:30I think Bhau Bali enjoys his work more because you go through this process of filmmaking
07:34and when you see the end result and the joy you get after seeing that, you know, so you
07:39forget all those days of all that heat and, you know, getting up early and working and
07:46the smoke.
07:47You know, my eyes were watering for the next four months after I shot for this film because
07:51there was so much dust and my nose kept leaking.
07:54And I was like, it's okay.
07:55I was like, because there was so much dust and everything.
07:58You know, you get allergies.
08:00But that's how it is.
08:01Right.
08:02Last question.
08:03Did success teach you more or did your failures teach you more?
08:04I think failure teaches you more.
08:06And success also.
08:07Failure teaches you more about never take success to your head.
08:13And that's what it is because I've seen ups and downs in my life.
08:16I've seen people change in front of me, towards me, and I don't take anything to my head.
08:24I respect everyone.
08:25And I know in the world, they only take you when you're needed.
08:30And that's how it is.
08:31You can't feel bad about it.
08:32Yeah.
08:33Thank you, Bobby, for entertaining us.
08:34Animal was a fun ride.
08:35Thank you so much.
08:36And I hope Kangooa as well.
08:37Thank you so much for your time.