Bobby Doll

Then he disappoints you by saying: “I’m happy to be a part of Kareeb.” You want to remind him that it is an odd reason for happiness, given that his career will slide down to a newer low. But all this is dismissed with a shrug of his considerable shoulders.

At this point, he begins to loom before you. He’s rather large, like everything that ever came out of Punjab. But he can talk in Hindi, unlike the impression he gives you on screen by constantly mouthing Punjabi.

So you ignore his inconsiderable past and ask him about his future. He looks more comfortable but still very large in the hotel room and startles you with his next utterance: “I have improved as an actor.” You ask: “But how on earth did you find out?” He shrugs again and carries on leaving you with the impression that maybe you weren’t really thinking aloud: “I want to fit into all sorts of roles.”

The size of the man begins to worry you again. At the moment he is fitting into Abbas Mastan’s Soldier, which will release later this year. Then he will get into what sounds like Kundan Shah’s Hum Tum Mohabbat Kare. There will also be a Raj Kanwar film on the way, apart from the home production London, which he says is “not London anymore.”

So what is it? He says the film still has him and brother Sunny Deol along with Urmila Matondkar in the lead, but “it has moved to Mumbai and now will be based in Mumbai and shot in Mumbai.” Maybe they’ll call just it Mumbai.

The city has played a big part in his life. He tells you that he has never gone to live anywhere else in his life. Then you want to know how old his life is and he hedges the question. You try asking about his brother’s age and you are met with more hedging.

Between shrugging and hedging, he does talk about his wife. She’s called Tanya and she “loves me in every role.” She sounds like an avowed devotee of the old cliche `love is blind’. What else comprises life for the hopeful star? “I do few films”, and he will have you believe by choice, “and then I spend my time with my family.” What about friends, pets and parties? “I like dogs, but I don’t have time for anything,” he says. “By the time I get home and meet with my family, there is no time left to go anywhere. We have a large family.” On account of almost everyone having two consorts, it is understandable.

He’s big on family. His father is his role model. His brother he is very fond of. His favourite movies are Mera Gaon Mera Desh and Sholay. Both featured his father. Then he launches into his extended childhood (doesn’t specify if it has ended) before telling you that his family (again) looks into his deals and generally protects him from the sharks in filmdom. The Kundan Shah deal was the first he cracked on his own, he says with the pride of someone who’s broken his first tooth. He also tells you he spends his holidays on his “father’s land” at Lonavla.

In a desperate bid to halt the family tide, you ask: “What about accidents?” He gives you the my-favourite-subject look. “You know I feel like a piece of furniture.” Images of a wooden actor swim before your eyes and you wonder at his candidness. Then he tells you that he only means it literally, as in he has one rod and two screws fitted into his body. This, apart from 72 stitches that keep that big frame together.

This is when sympathy strikes you and you ask where he sees himself in a few years. You think he’ll say, “I see myself as a hugely successful star with a queue of directors outside my house.” But he hasn’t been exactly predictable, so he says: “I want to have a lot of kids and retire.” Well, what do you say, he seems to have given up even before you have.