Abhay Deol’s choice of films has always been about finding the middle ground between mainstream and alternative. The actor has admitted to actively standing for his characters portray and make changes wherever necessary. This is his way of “challenging” the film industry, for which he has been given labels like “politically incorrect” and “rebel”. However, after spending some time away from commercial cinema, what is Abhay Deol’s stand now?
“I can be politically incorrect but my question is to what end? What is my goal, my purpose? I always challenged the industry. Whether it was endorsement of racist products or the rights of musicians and producers, or changing the narrative of what kind of movies and characters we portray and why. I did a lot of that in the beginning of my career because I wanted to make space for someone like myself. And so I was politically incorrect then but I wasn’t trying to be that way. I wanted to be as authentic as possible. People say I was a rebel, but it served me well. It brought me to where I am. It got me respect and I got to make the movies I wanted to make,” Abhay told Dirty Magazine.
He added, “You can’t be the same person at 35 that you were at 25; or the same person at 45 that you were at 35, hopefully. We all fear change, but change is natural, change is necessary. You know the saying ‘no man is an island’? That really hit me because I realized that I wasn’t building any bridges. If you want to lead, you cannot push people into a corner because then you isolate them and if you corner people, they’ll corner you at some point. If you just take a strong stand and are not willing to negotiate, you’ll always be remembered as that guy, but that would be the end of you. And this is the challenge to your ego — can you still hold on to these ideals but engage with the world? I am better off engaging even the enemy if I have to.”
Abhay added that his rebellion now has a different shade. He said, “I still want to make movies that speak truthfully and open doors for new kinds of narrative. It’s a quieter sort of rebellion. I may not have the glory, but I will have work that is true to who I am. I’m not an activist, I’m an actor. You have to choose which one you want to be, because you can’t be both. I’ve learnt that.”
Abhay Deol will make his comeback in Faraz Arif Ansari’s directorial project, Bun Tikki. Abhay said that Bun Tikki’s script is his favourite one in his career. “It is a nice blend of mainstream with alternative, which is how I would describe most of the films I’ve worked on. DevD, Oye Lucky, Socha Na Tha, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara — all of these I used to call middle-of-the-road films, now I say mainstream meets alternative. But this one packs a bigger punch,” he said.
Comments
0 comment