In popular mindspace, SUNNY and BOBBY DEOl have been perceived through stereotypes and as privileged Jat boys of a mega success story called DHARMENDRA. Both did flame their way into top spot but whooshed down just as suddenly. Now they do rescue their fortunes briefly but go into hibernation once again. But peel their handsome skin and you would easily find two standout men who know how to keep their heads over their shoulders and have the wits about themselves. By Rinku Ghosh
‘Everybody is chasinga herd mentality’
What is it about the Yamla Pagla Deewana franchise that you keep making one film after the other and each of them strikes a chord with the massesij
The whole country knows dad. And the franchise sets the only context where the three of us can be together. It has much warmth and love. We thought we should, therefore, do something fun, nothing serious. The story matrix will be there though we’re not trying to teach anything but ensure good, clean family entertainment, something that is in short supply at the moment. There’s a real chemistry going between father and sons and it is only in this format that we get to play things we wouldn’t have done otherwise.
How much of careful planning goes into each editionij
There’s nothing careful or not careful about it. End of the day, the script and screenplay have to be good for a film to work. Any film costs money and hours of every human being, so obviously we have to be very sure of what we have to do. That is why we waited for a good many years till we found the right story that could be executed in an enjoyable manner. I’m not a buyer of the theory that comedy as a genre is difficult to sustain. If the screenplay is good, it works. It’s not that you can or cannot be comic enough. You can only be as good or as bad as the screenplay.
Still we cannot be sure. The fun of our profession is we keep doing things without knowing what tomorrow is going to be like. So many people ask me how I enacted a certain bit or a role. I tell them I had no idea if I did a great job or not. I just did my bit. So in our journey, there will be mistakes, we might fall flat on our faces but we have to carry on doing what we want.
You have travelled the whole gamut of being a debutante actor, star, director and producer much before peers. What interests you the most about filmcraftij
Its entirety. This is my passion, life, my everything. Films don’t bore me even for a second. This is one medium that constantly challenges you and wants you to surpass yourself. You don’t know what the next benchmark is going to be until you start setting it in the first place. And we need to challenge the scope of our stories on big screen.
For example, I don’t like the trend of imitations that’s sweeping the industry currently. Foreign films are meant to inspire you in thinking out of the box, they are not meant to be copied. There’s lot to be proved to our own selves. At least that’s what I want to do in the industry.
Were you as particular about self-assessment as an actorij
I was extremely critical of my performances while getting through them, constantly finding faults and nit-picking. I never thought I had done it right. But now that I look back, they don’t seem that bad. Good or bad, that itchiness in the instant is me.
For Yamla Pagla Deewana, how much creative freedom did you give to your directorsij
The best thing for an actor is to believe in the director. And let it be. He’s got a vision and you can only finetune it as an actor. You can be a bounce board for him but can’t get into his shoes.
Why have you confined yourself to the franchise and not ventured into experimenting with roles at a time when content is taking centrestageij
I haven’t confined myself. And I wish there was genuine creativity. Now it’s more about promotion and commerce. The whole country is running after money right now. Everybody is talking about being the number one, be it channels, newspapers or brands. What is the pleasure you get out of calling yourself thatij Because you have to do something original to sustain excellence and energise fresh pursuits. The number game is a cycle. It has gone to people’s brain right now.
Is the abhorrence to the rating system the reason why you pulled out of the frenetic race and chose your spaceij
I’m hunting for fresh content and I’m not getting it. That’s the truth. I am even working on scripts though I don’t want to because I am not a writer, that’s not my core competence. Yet I’m drifting to other sides as well because I feel the need to look into them. In my time, there would be directors and writers who lent depth. Things have changed now but can we blame anyoneij Can we say if this is wrong or that is rightij Because in the end, people are still watching and consuming enough to generate revenues. So there’s a certain sense of satisfaction. Even reconciliation.
Do you think we are losing out on the finer things of life and that a mediocrity has crept inij
I don’t know what it is. I am nobody to correct it. I think everyone is running after a herd mentality and the herd is too big. If one is doing it, the other is doing it too. One says this is fashion, the other will follow it. We should love and enjoy what we do, not because it’s fashion or it makes us number 1. We should trust our own capacity. I like the taste or I don’t like the taste of a certain food. But how can I say it’s not spicy because someone else said soij Where’s the individual voiceij
Sunny, it takes a lot of gumption to step back from the limelight because you have been a star.
Nothing unusual about it. You have got to co-exist. Even when I joined the industry, there was dad, Amit ji, Jeetu ji, Shatru ji and so many other actors doing so well. There were blockbuster directors like Manmohan Desai. And there were films like Betaab and Arjun that also stood their ground. I have been in this healthy space since.
Were you ever selective about your rolesij
I tried a lot to be selective but nothing was coming across, so I ended up doing the in-betweeners too. But I still keep hoping for better work.
Do you feel the pressure to make yourself relevant in the digital spaceij
I’m going to do what I enjoy doing, I won’t go beyond my strengths. I’m open to everything if it’s a nice subject. The problem with the digital platform is that it is flooded with content which seems to be repetitive and picked up from each other. Again, that’s because hits mean money.
What about Indian storiesij
I will put this succinctly. We were making Hindi films, now we’re making Bollywood films. look at regional cinema, so much diversity there.
Your source of inspiration...
Nothing. You just keep going. I just take things as they come. If things are difficult and tough, then I find what I’m not meant to do. Right now, I’m busy with my son’s film, am producing and directing it, but more about that later.
You still have old school passion.
There is nothing old in you. That is how art should be.
‘I always wanted to be a hero’
What keeps you invested in this franchiseij
I want to work with my dad and it’s very difficult to come across good scripts that allow me to do that. So it has been four to five years since the last film came out. Besides, we are Jats, we never give up easily. We believe in our film, our franchise and our audience.
Does comedy come naturally to youij
I don’t know. When you are an actor, you must have the capacity to make everything look natural. You have to believe in yourself and your performance. The most important aspect of a comedy is a good script. Without it, no matter what you try, it won’t make you laugh and the actors will look silly. So the script and the dialogues are what make a comedy work.
Growing up in a film family, did you want to become anything else other than an actorij
I never thought of pursuing any other discipline. When I was in third standard — you know how at school they make everybody stand up and ask what you want to become when you grow up — I screamed that I wanted to be a hero compared to the other students who said they wanted to be doctor, scientist and entrepreneur. And living with someone like Dharmendra meant that star-struck relatives would always lead you to believe, “Tu toh hero banega bada hoke. (You will grow up to be a hero.)” I wanted to be an actor because there is no business like showbusiness.
Growing up, did you watch many filmsij
I loved watching films, I still binge as much as I can. At that time, we had VCRs and I remember watching Mackenna’s Gold 100 times because that was the only film I had. Then there was Sholay and later video libraries started appearing. I loved going to the theatre too.
Any dominant film inspiration that left a lasting impressionij
A lot of my dad’s films left a lasting impression on me, specially Pratigya, which is one film I really want to remake. Then there were Mera Gaon Mera Desh and Haqeeqat. I used to spend a lot of time with my grandmother; she was always a very selfless woman. When I found out that Haqeeqat had released again in the theatres, I asked her to accompany me. She took me there although that day my father was a chief guest at an inaugural ceremony of some project. I was actually dying to watch this film on the big screen. Chupke Chupke is an awesome film. I would love to do a film like Satyakam but people no more believe in that kind of an individual.
Do you think Hindi films are actually going through a phase of evolution or devaluationij
Everybody has likes and dislikes, everybody has a taste for a certain kind of cinema and the sad part is with every new generation, the taste keeps changing. People like us miss that old taste but with time you have to move on in life.
Were you happy with the roles you got as a starij
I enjoyed what I was doing because it was all about being larger than life, about stylising, thrillers and scale. Now things have changed. You have to do things that people can relate to. The new generation identifies with a different way of life. You can’t say cinema has lost it, or is losing it, or it has gained; it’s just that everybody has a different point of view. Sometimes I look at my dad’s old films and wonder how amazing the industry was at one time. But then they had an easy pace, not the rat race.
How did you deal with the trough in this rat race, are you hurt by the reaction of peers who turned awayij
I do not have any grudge against anybody. Part of the reason why I fell off was because I wasn’t getting good offers and I didn’t want to do just anything.
And then I started drowning my sorrows the wrong way and got lost. But I’m happy I realised I was the one who had chosen to slump, so I worked my way up hard and people appreciated me in Race 3. There is a new energy in me. Everyday is a good day for me because if you keep getting up and thinking about all the wrong things that happened, you’ll always be sad. That’s how I started believing and looking at things in a different way.
Are you getting some novel scriptsij
When you have an image in the industry, people look at you only through a certain prism. I was really happy about breaking the mould in a film called Poster Boys, people loved my work but it wasn’t a hit at the box office. So producers didn’t come back with experimental subjects ever again. It’s very difficult for a certain kind of actors to get into an alternative space. Abhay manages this very well. His films are very real so for him it’s easy to graduate to other things. He has a chance of doing both, it’s just that he’s a very choosy person. I always tell him that if he was not an actor, he would have been a lawyer because he argues so well. He has his own strong beliefs. He’s a great actor, I just hope that he works more.
So what did you do when you were in the penumbraij
I became a very involved father. And I enjoyed the years of being and growing with my kids.