Abhay Deol is known for starring in unconventional and critically acclaimed films like Dev.D, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Manorama Six Feet Under. The actor is now geared up for his next film titled Jungle Cry, based on the inspiring true story of 12 boys from Odisha who surprised the world by winning the Under-14 Rugby World Cup in 2007.
In one of the promotional interviews for the film, Abhay opened up on the ongoing debate of North vs South cinema with the recent South films such as SS Rajamouli's RRR, KGF Chapter 2 success washing out Bollywood films like Dhaakad, Heropanti 2, Runway 34, and Attack at the box office.
Talking to Bollywood Hungama, Abhay said, "The South Indian film industry has always existed and have always had their audience. It’s just that if you’re from the North, and watching news related to that - you’re just not watching news related to outside it. You’re ignorant of that existence, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist."
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The actor continued, "Similarly, someone from the South might not watch Hindi cinema, and is ignorant of the Hindi stars. They’ve always co-existed. Now, we’re embracing a larger Indian identity than just the regional belt — and Bollywood could be considered regional too, as it appeals to the Hindi belt."
Abay, who is the nephew of veteran actor Dharmendra and cousin of Sunny Deol-Bobby Deol, further stated, "Now, there’s a bit of a mishmash happening because you realise, oh ‘Baahubali looks great’, or ‘this actor looks interesting, let’s take him in a different language movie’ and vice-versa."
The actor played a negative role in his Tamil debut in the superhero film Hero starring Sivakarthikeyan in the leading role. Abhay also disclosed that he was 'put off' when he was not allowed to dub for himself in the 2019 film and had then decided to not do any South film in the future.
Elaborating on the incident, Abhay told the entertainment portal, "It was really tough for me to learn the language — I couldn’t just rattle off anything. I had to say the words. I wanted to dub for myself, but they said my accent was too strong, but he (the character) is a North Indian, let there be an accent."
"I worked really hard in getting the words, but they said the accent was strong. So I said, you approached me as a North Indian, and have me playing the North Indian, so why can’t I have an accent? That put me off. If I can’t use my own voice, I said I’m not going to do it again", he concluded.
