‘FILMMAKERS WANTED ME TO ACT FOR FREE’
Deepak Dobriyal says getting a foothold in Bollywood wasn’t easy; big production houses have many a time shown arrogance to him
Actor Deepak Dobriyal has created a space for himself in the film industry now. But the actor recalls a time when he was asked to work for free or shown arrogance by big production houses.
The actor, who was noted for playing the hilarious Pappiji in Aanand L Rai’s Tanu Weds Manu series, has featured in prominent films, such as Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015), Hindi Medium (2017) and Lucknow Central (2017) recently.
“I had said no to a lot of producers and directors in the last four-five years. At some places there was attitude problem or monetary issues. There was this arrogance, ‘we are giving you mileage, a big banner, we won’t pay you’. They asked me to do films for free and lesser money. These things were negative but somehow they had a positive effect (on me),” says Deepak.
The turnaround for Deepak has been sweet as the actor and some of the production houses which were not keen to hire him, have come back. He says it has made him realise that honesty towards work always pays. He says that he has never compromised on the quality of his work. His latest release Kaalakaandi — a black comedy — chronicles the story of six characters from different worlds of Mumbai in a span of 12 hours and how the lives of these strangers intersect.
The 42-year-old is praised for his great comic timing but what bothers Deepak is the emphasis on making people laugh for the sake of it. “People have made comedy a gag and left the story behind. Even if you look at the time of Charlie Chaplin and what he did, he infused life experiences in gags. So his gags were films in themselves because they had a story. But today we don’t see that .... The pressure to make people laugh shouldn’t be there. You should not try to make everyone in the theatre laugh. Tell a story, keep strong characters, and then see the magic,” he adds. PTI
They asked me to do films for free and lesser money. These things were negative but somehow they had a positive effect (on me) DEEPAK DOBRIYAL ACTOR