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Actor Vicky Kaushal has been climbing the stairs to superstar status ever since his debut role in Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan. His last film, Chhaava, collected over Rs 807 crore worldwide. On the other hand is actor Bobby Deol, who is building back his career brick by brick after a long hiatus from the public eye. While both actors are on completely separate paths, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap believes there is something common between them, and that is exactly what he talked about in a recent interview.
While talking about his films like Gangs of Wasseypur and his latest Nishaanchi, Kashyap recalled the early days of Kaushal in the industry. When asked whether a young Kaushal helped him in the capacity of an assistant director on GOW, Kashyap replied in the affirmative. He lauded the actor for being very clear about what he wanted to do from an early age and for taking the right steps in order to understand the business.
“Yes, Vicky was my assistant. His father, Sham Kaushal ji, was the action director on the film. Vicky wanted to see how a film was made because he wanted to be an actor from the very start. He was very young, and he worked extremely hard. He was very clear that he wanted to become an actor, and he realised on that set that acting isn’t something where the moment he gets a chance, he’ll make it big. He witnessed so many great actors that the moment the film ended, he joined the theatre,” said Kashyap.
He continued and said, “He started doing theatre with Manav Kaul and Kumud Mishra. He dedicated at least 2 to 3 years to that, and he understood the value of acting. He didn’t become a star overnight, and he has done a lot of secondary roles. He did a lot of supporting roles, like in Sanju, Raazi, and Manmarziyan. Someone looked at those roles and thought of giving him a chance because he truly shone in those roles.”
Talking about the art of acting and what he expects from an actor, Kashyap took the example of Bobby Deol. He explained that while working with him on Bandar, the actor related to the story of the protagonist, a washed-up actor. Kashyap admitted that Deol told him about the tough times he saw in his career, when work stopped coming his way and when people started forgetting him.
He said, “You have to completely surrender yourself to the art,” and I heard something very beautiful from Bobby Deol about this. The film we did, Bandar, is a story about a failed one-hit wonder. So Bobby told me that he could understand the story. He said, ‘When I was 5 years old, I knew I was a star, and then I became one. Fir sab khatam ho gaya, logon ke phone aana band ho gaye, kuch nahi hota tha. (One day everything stopped. People stopped calling me for roles. Nothing used to happen).”
Kashyap continued and said, “He told me that, ‘I used to drive around in Juhu, and whenever I used to spot vanity vans or lights, I used to either get angry or start crying. Thinking, why am I not there?’ He told me that no one ever told him to attend an acting workshop until he was 40 years old. That is when he started learning how to act. He did roles in Class of ’83, Love Hostel, and Ashram. I played characters who I wasn’t like in real life, but that is when I realised how satisfying it was to play a character.”
After breaking onto the scene with films like Rajkumar Santoshi’s Barsaat and Rajiv Rai’s Gupt: The Hidden Truth, Deol’s career hit a snag in the 2000s. His films underperformed at the box office, and suddenly he wasn’t in the running for the leading man. However, with the OTT boom, Deol made a comeback in shows like Class of ’83 and Aashram. His return to fame was solidified with the Sandeep Reddy Vanga directorial Animal, which also starred Ranbir Kapoor. The film earned Rs 915 crore worldwide. Deol was last seen in the Netflix show Ba***ds of Bollywood, directed by Aryan Khan.
During the 3rd edition of SCREEN, Deol talked about the various struggles he faced and the actor admitted that he put his family through a lot as well. He said, “I did put them through hardship, my family. We are so close knit, we live together and I know that they were going through pain by seeing me go through pain and there is nothing they could have done.”
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