After chasing actor Deepak Dobriyal for some weeks for a narration, an exasperated Raj R Gupta told him, “You are anyway going to say no to it. Why don’t you just listen to the story once”. Gupta was trying to put together his first directorial project in Marathi, and wanted Dobriyal to play the lead role. When the actor finally heard the story of this film titled Baba, the actor put some of his commitments aside and agreed to do the film in which he plays a speech-impaired parent to an eight-year-old boy. The film which explores the relationship between a father and his son, marks Dobriyal’s Marathi film debut. Even though there was a sign language coach to train him, the team soon realised that this character lives in rural Maharashtra. So, him using sign language would not have been convincing. “My co-actors (Nandita Dhuri and Aaryan Meghji) and I had to work out a way of communicating and expressing ourselves. Something that appears natural yet makes it easy for the audience to understand,” says Dobriyal, who along with the cast, worked on these nuances during the pre-production workshop. While working on the scenes, the team had to avoid anything that seemed pretentious and worked on the emotional journey of the characters. “We also had to be careful about respecting the dignity of speech-impaired people,” he says. As revealed by the film’s trailer, the story revolves around the speech-impaired parents of a young boy, whose happy life is disrupted when an affluent couple claims to be the boy’s parents. Deepak Dobriyal, who is often praised for his big screen appearances, will be seen as a protagonist after a long hiatus. “Playing the lead role allows an actor the scope to explore a range of emotions and go into details. I’ve played the lead in a couple of movies, including Daayen Ya Baayen (2010). But they were not watched by a large audience. With Sanjay Dutt coming on board as the producer of Baba, it’s expected to get the push it deserves when it releases on August 2,” says the 43-year-old. The actor, appreciated for his performance as the jilted groom in Omkara (2006) and gangster in Dabangg 2 (2012), is often seen playing supporting characters. Dobriyal gained popularity as Pappi in Tanu Weds Manu (2011) and Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015) for his comic timing. “After Tanu Weds Manu Returns, there was a string of offers to play similar characters and do comedy. Most of them would pitch their project by saying, ‘it is an out-and-out comedy’. I tried to avoid such offers as I didn’t want to be branded a comedian. At one stage, I had to even send out the message that I have stopped doing comedy. I knew that I would earn a lot of money if I signed those projects, but as an actor, I would not have been happy,” says the actor, whose upcoming projects include Navdeep Singh’s Laal Kaptaan and Homi Adajania’s Angrezi Medium. With movies such as Omkara (2009), Gulaal (2008), and Shaurya (2008) to his credit, Dobriyal believes that he has shown more shades as an actor than just being a comedian. The shooting of Baba was wrapped up last December. The limited-budget film was shot in the picturesque Guhagar in Ratnagiri in 23 days. Since the shooting schedule was short, a lot of effort went into the preparation for the shoot. “Yet, once we were on the sets, there were a lot of on-the-spot improvisations. While doing the scenes we were reacting to the co-actors just like we do in theatre. There was a lot of dependency on co-actors to perform well. We worked as a team,” says Dobriyal. He has been active in Delhi theatre circuit and acted in plays such as Tughlaq, Andha Yug, Rakt Kalyan and Court Martial before he shifted to Mumbai in 2002. After spending nearly 17 years in the industry, Deepak Dobriyal is looking for roles which are “solid” and do not “typecast” him. He is also willing to bide his time till such roles are offered to him. “I don’t want to follow the industry rule and take up anything that’s offered to me. As an artiste, I want to push my boundaries. If you ever see me driving a fancy car, then assume that I have taken the easier route,” he says.
