QUOTE MARTIAL
MAKING WAVES
SHORT TAKES
ROUGH CUTS
MEMORIES
ARCHIVES
MOVIES CHAT

The Deol gets his due

Mrudula Rajyadhyaksha

Bobby Deol. Click for bigger pic!

At the Empire Dubbing Studio, Andheri, we wait and wait for Bobby Deol. He's in there somewhere, busy dubbing for Abbas-Mastan's Soldier.

But he is courtesy personfied. For before he left, muttering apologies, he saw to it the AC was switched on and that tea was sent to us. He also sent over an assistant to see if we were comfortable. Finally, the tall hunk walks in. He's wearing snug light blue jeans, a cotton shirt that looks a straight lift from Fashion Street -- it is, he tells us later. He settles down.

It take us a while to start work seriously since Bobby is feeling mischievous and is in no mood for a serious interview. He is busy cracking jokes, behaving much like a child who likes his tutor but hates the lesson.

We muse over complex issues like about the child struggling within this man. But we soon toss aside transactional analysis and work to get him into conversation.

A colleague hands over her dictaphone which is switched on. When she realises the raillery will go on for some more time, she tries to put it off. Bobby notices that and promptly puts off the dictaphone himself. After laughing his heart out, he decides to get serious.

Seeing the fun is over, we ask him about Soldier. Is it another war film as the name suggests?

He struggles with the dictaphone play button, refusing help from a friend.

"I know, I know how to use it," he says petulantly, not letting her touch the instrument. Thankfully, it works.

"Ok, Soldier is a suspense thriller." LikeGupt? we probe.

With Neha in Kareeb. Click for bigger pic!

"Come on, how can it be like Gupt? It's very different. I am a soldier because I fight for the truth, not in any war." That's the first serious answer. And what does he fight for in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Kareeb?" He grins.

"It's a story of a spoilt brat living in a joint family in a small town. He's generally in trouble due to his pranks.. and to get himself out of bad situations he tells lies. But he doesn't mean any harm. He also manages to create some trouble with the girl he loves...

"Kareeb is a romantic film but it's also a soft, sensitive story of various relationships."

Doesn't the character sound a bit like the real Bobby?

"Yeah, he's like me. I was the youngest in the family, I was a spoilt kid. Mom used to spank me though Dad never raised a hand. I was his pet but it's never easy for fathers to leave the kids to the mother's care.

So who is he close to?

"As a child, I was very close to my mother but later I got closer to dad so it's difficult to say actually."

And in Kareeb? Has he played himself there?

"Yes, in most of the film, though not in the whole film. Like, I imagine how I'd face mom when she's angry. Some situations I've visualised as they would happen in real life. It helps, but not always. Things in cinema are generally exaggerated, overdramatic. You can't compare them with real life."

With Manisha Koirala in Gupt. Click for bigger pic!

We switch to Bobby's home production, London where big brother Sunny directs him.

"I don't want to talk about films which aren't complete. I would rather talk about movies that are nearing release." We plead that he at least tell us how he finds big brother's direction though, once we hear it, we know should have guessed the answer: "Oh, wonderful. Very good."

He lights a Benson and Hedges while we structure our next query -- about how he sobered down after marriage.

"I guess marriage does that to you," Bobby says seriously. "It makes you sensible, responsible, answerable too...

"Yeah, but I was always answerable to my mom and dad. We all are answerable to our parents, aren't we?" We explain that what we are talking about is the sincerity, loyalty he displays now.

"I'm sincere," he says. "Besides, I love my wife. We understand each other well. We are both very much alike in many things. Our tuning is perfect. I'm lucky to have her as my wife."

Does she feel the same way?

"Yes."

Does she say that?

"No, but I know," he says, trying to stop himself laughing. "These things aren't to be said, they are to be felt, understood" he says, a little stony by now. So we change the subject to his favoured food.

Click for bigger pic!

"I like simple, home-made food.Dal, rice, roti and a few Punjabi dishes." He has no special preference for a non-vegetarian diet.

"I don't like meat much. In our house, we don't cook non-veg, except eggs." That being because his grandparents stuck to the greens. As did his mother, his uncle and his aunt. So there was no meat cooked in the house. Whatever came in, underwent culinary treatment outside. But Bobby follows no strict diet.

"I eat whenever and whatever I like but then I work out. I eat as much as I want to -- when I like something."

So maybe then Bobby's amongst the lucky ones who don't tend to put on weight.

"Of course not, I've a tendency to put on weight, all right. I was always a fat child. When I was born I weighed 11 pounds... Till 13,14, I was very chubby and drank 5, 6 big glasses of milk. Luckily, I became taller," he says. Concentrating on lighting his second cigarette, he mumbles that staying in shape is one of the necessities of his profession.

So what are the others, we inquire.

"Giving interviews," he says with a small smile. "I hate it but is what showbiz is all about -- staying in the news, being spoken about."

To stay in business many others take up a lot of assignments. Why doesn't he? Why's he so choosy about his films?

"I don't think you achieve anything by signing many films. It's good to do few films and give quality work." It's not, he says, because he can afford to do less work.

"Even then I would have always preferred doing little work that everyone will appreciate... It's out of choice."

With Aishwarya Rai in Aur Pyar Ho Gaya. Click for bigger pic!

We ask Bobby how much time he spends on his computer or the Internet.

"No, no, I don't know anything about them. I wish I was born in the black and white era. Life was so simple, less hectic, much better than today.

"Technically we're advanced in many ways but where's the peace of mind, where are the sentiments of people gone? What will nuclear bombs give us?" he asks, all in one passionate breath.

To bring down the temperature, we ask him his birthday.

"Twenty-seventh January, 1969," he says. But film stars aren't supposed to reveal their ages, we remind him.

"Why not?" he bristles again. "I don't like to hide mine."

Maybe ten years later he will, we tease Bobby.

"No, I don't think that by lying or hiding your age you look younger. Then what's the point?"

We look at that truculent mug and know this is goodbye time. Absolutely, we agree, anything you say, and ducking our heads obsequiously, leave the premises.