Bobby Deol on his South sojourn with Kanguva and NBK 109: ‘Suriya is a great actor, Balakrishna sir is a sweetheart’

The lockdown fast-tracked the OTT boom, and made digital streaming an unmissable aspect in all our homes. There were a lot of players who made hay while this sun shined, and relaunched or revamped or revitalised their careers. But if we had to name one actor who made the best use of this boom, and returned to the consciousness of the average Hindi cinema audience, it has to be Bobby Deol. In fact, as many cheekily say, we are living in the ‘Lord Bobby’ era, and the actor has now made his way to the Tamil and Telugu industries to spread this renaissance. In a recent interview, Bobby spoke about Suriya’s Kanguva, and Balakrishna’s NBK 109. 

Asserting the belief that cinema has truly become pan-Indian now with dubbed versions of films reaching audiences across the world, Bobby told Bollywood Hungama, “Everyone wants to make a great project, and that is the common goal. Being on the sets in Chennai or Hyderabad or Mumbai doesn’t make much of a difference now.” Revealing that he signed Kanguva much before the release of Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal, headlined by Ranbir Kapoor, Bobby said, “I always wanted to work with Suriya. He is a great actor, and I was excited about being offered Kanguva. Because I haven’t followed much of Tamil cinema, I didn’t know director Siva. But he is a great filmmaker, and such a gentle soul. He is like a teddy bear, and he is gone on to make such a great film.” 

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Talking about the process of becoming Udhiran, the primary antagonist of Kanguva, Bobby shared, “I had to wear a hairpiece, there were scars on my face, custom-made contact lenses had to be put on, and then, we had to shoot in dust and smoke. Many think filmmaking is an easy process, but it is clearly something else altogether. You have to go through the heat, storm fans, dust, etc… but it is so much fun, because it satisfies you creatively.” 

Bobby stars in Kanguva as Udhiran

Apart from Kanguva, Bobby Deol is also working in Balakrishna’s next, tentatively titled NBK 109. Directed by Bobby Kolli, this project marks the Animal actor’s second Telugu film after Pawan Kalyan’s Hari Hara Veera Mallu, which is under production. “Balakrishna sir is a sweetheart. He is young at heart, and is full of energy. My director Bobby is yet another beautiful soul, and I am lucky to work with such amazing people. I like to be in such environments where the work happens properly, but it has a very chill vibe too,” said Bobby, who refrained from giving any more details about his character from the film, which is speculated to feature him as the antagonist.