I didn't know how to be an actor without being a star: Abhay Deol

It's been a long day of promotions at a five-star hotel in New Delhi. Abhay Deol looks like he's had enough, but still maintains his warm smile and chatty demeanour despite the addition of unscheduled interactions. Deol, who belongs to one of Bollywood's most prominent film families, made his debut in Imtiaz Ali's Socha Na Tha in 2005, a movie produced by his uncle, Dharmendra. Navdeep Singh's Manorama Six Feet Under, Anurag Kashyap's DevD, and Dibakar Banerjee's Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! soon followed, making him the poster boy of a new brand of cinema, that "made you think", says Deol. Yet, that did not subsist. Deol stayed away from the screen, barring the odd, annual appearance. He's now back with Happy Bhag Jayegi, a Mudassar Aziz movie that stars Diana Penty and Jimmy Shergill.
Hopeful that the film will get a good reception, Deol talks about his initial fear of being a star, of why Bollywood needs to stop shaping eight-pack clones and how he's now come back wiser. Edited excerpts:

What is your earliest childhood memory?

I have a vague memory of a set in, perhaps, Kashmir. And of the sets of Kanti Shah's Loha. I remember Kimi Katkar, Chimpu Kapoor, Karan Kapoor and Mandakini on sets. I also remember meeting Parveen Babi when my tayaji (Dharmendra) took me to meet her, since I was a fan. And she let me kiss her cheek — I'll never forget that. I was eight!

Did you always want to act?

I was intrigued by it in the beginning, I must admit. Acting was the only thing I enjoyed in school. I don't know if that was natural or if it was because of the environment at home. But when I was 10, I said I will never act because everyone took it for granted that I will become an actor. I fought the urge to act so that I could prove people wrong.

Who are your favourite directors in the industry? 

I love Navdeep's work. In regional cinema, I loved Fandry, Nagraj Manjule's work is phenomenal. The producer, Vivek Ajaria, too did a great job.

What do you keep in mind when signing for a script? 

(I check) Whether it has solid backing or not. There's no point in making a movie if it's going to be destroyed in distribution or marketing. This has happened enough number of times for me to know not to work with a debutant director and a debutant producer in one project. One of the two has to be experienced or the film will fall flat. Even if it's a good film.

Soon after DevD released, you left for New York to pursue a course in welding. Why?

When DevD released, I knew it would be big. I could feel it. I was just a little bit scared. I had grown up reading a lot of negative stuff about my family — my uncle, cousins, my dad. I remember all the talk of how there's politics in the industry and how the award functions work. I had a lot of negative views about the industry, and I got sucked into it. I thought that I would have to embrace it in order to gain any access. And I don't think I was ready to embrace it then. There was a lot of negativity I had focussed upon. When I started acting and writing, I couldn't focus on the positives around me. I wanted to act, but I didn't know how to continue being an actor without being a star. My approach to things has changed, but the honesty remains.

What kept you away for so long? 

(Not) Finding the right script. You see, people who love my work, be it DevD, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! or Socha Na Tha, say that the particular film is their favourite. DevD lovers expect another DevD from me, while Zindagi... lovers want me to do another such film.

I know I cannot please everyone, but I wondered what is it that brought these people to me. I think it was the fact that the content did not insult their intelligence. And whether they liked it or not, they weren't fooled by the product... the viewers weren't treated as idiots, it was not like you needed to leave your brains behind... it made them think. It may or may not be to their taste, but it was well-made. I've put in the same effort in this film (Happy Bhag Jayegi), this is a more mainstream film than a DevD, or Oye Lucky!... But it's similar, in the formula sense, to Socha Na Tha or Zindagi.... I think this will have a wider audience, and I hope the people who love my work will appreciate it. They may not love it, but at least they will see my intentions behind making it.

You've spoken about institutionalising funds for movies, especially for good cinema. 

Not necessarily for good cinema, but for non-formula movies. Regional cinema gets subsidies from state governments — they need it and are prospering. I fully support that. Bollywood, in its formulaic sense, does not need the money. That leaves Hindi cinema as an orphan child. And what we don't realise is that within Hindi cinema, we must categorise Bollywood as one aspect, and Hindi cinema as another. A journalist termed it as 'Hindi-indie', saying I was the face of that, and it was a term that sat perfectly well, but never took off.

So, if we have a category called indie cinema which ticks a few boxes, such as that it's not star driven, not necessarily a musical, doesn't have the same access to funds that mainstream Bollywood does, then perhaps that movie can be financed differently. Of course, people may misuse it, but that doesn't mean it should not exist. Up until a year ago, women could not do make-up in Bollywood. They had perfectly logical reasons in their heads for that, but it was idiotic.

France supports its cinema, a certain percentage gives back to its film industry. Canada and Australia too have subsidies. The reason India doesn't have subsidies, or even collaborative treaties, is that no one will come here to shoot because they won't get anything. In Australia, they give you 35 per cent back, mitigating certain risks. We don't have that in India. If we do this, there'll be a variety of people making movies in various genres. The current view is that Bollywood is big, it is mainstream and that people expect it to be a certain way.

There needs to be a vision so that things change. I agree that there have not been many people for too long who have tried to bring a change. But that doesn't mean that there haven't been any at all — there was Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, and now Naseeruddin and Shabana Azmi. Why can't we try and nurture the next Shabana Azmi or the next Guru Dutt? Instead, we are just moulding every actor into an eight-pack clone or an item number because they won't be supported in any other way. Everyone has talent. But they want you to look a certain way, so these actors just start looking like each other.