Bobby Deol On Why He Is Enjoying This Phase Of His Career

Bobby Deol plays one helluva scary coldblooded mass murderer in  Shanker Raman’s  Love Hostel.

The  affable  actor  who wouldn’t hurt a fly in real life  says it was  difficult ou to get into the head of someone so evil and vicious. “Well, when I heard  the subject and  character I really enjoyed what  I heard.  After that  it was all about workshops and mastering my lines so that I had a full understanding of this  character’s mind.You know, I am most spontaneous when  I am on the set . So the preparation was tough for me. I had to use a lot of prosthetics and since  this  character chews tobacco(I don’t) I had  to  put cotton my mouth  to  look as I do.”

For Bbobby,the most challenging part  of playing  the  character was  the language. “This whole look of the character was designed by my director  Shankar Ramen.The most challenging  part  of playing Dagar was  I had to learn  Haryanvi. I had to get  it right, Or it would have  not worked.”

Of late e playing  some negative characters. “It is not conscious career decision to play negative characters  but a conscious  decision to play interesting characters. I don’t look at  characters as positive or negative.When I watch  films there is always  one character  that stays  with you. I want to play that  character. That’s  why  I enjoyed  doing diverse characters like the ones in Class Of  83, Ashram and now Love Hostel.”

Prakash Jha’s Ashram proved a gamechanger for  Bobby.  How has it changed the course of your career?  “Well, an actor’s life is always  uncertain. Even  if  you achieve  some success  and recognition.  To find  challenging roles is tough. Still, I am trying. I  am doing Sandeep Vanga’s Animal with Ranbir  Kapoor , Parineeti Chopra. I’ll be  working with  Anil Kapoor again after Race 3. It got delayed because of Covid. We start shooting  in the middle of this year. Then I am doing the family film Apne  2 which I am  very excited  about.”

Looking back  Bobby explains why he disappeared  aftera  spate of  successes such as Soldier,Apne , Gupt and and Baadal.  “That’s what my fans used to ask me whenever I would travel. They  would ask why I wasn’t being seen on the screen.And I couldn’t tell them it was  because  I wasn’t getting good roles. But my fans  stood by me. They gave me  the strength  to  keep looking for the right roles. Thankfully I found the roles I liked. My new  films have given  me  some new fans. I am  thankful  I am still here. Yeah , I am in a good space right now.”

He admits the OTT platform has done a lot of good for a lot of actors.  “I think it has helped actors  like me as well, who were  not getting good opportunities lately. I am doing interesting work. And people have the time at home to watch  me  in films or in  the  longer format the webseries at their own pace. Even as   a  viewer I  enjoy the variety  I get on the OTT platform. I think the OTT is  the best thing to happen to our film industry.”