Bobby Deol on Career Resurgence and Starring in Aryan Khan’s Debut

Bobby Deol is experiencing a remarkable career renaissance, celebrating three decades in the film industry with a string of acclaimed performances that have reshaped his standing in Bollywood.

The son of legendary actor Dharmendra and brother of star Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol made his debut as a leading man in 1995 with “Barsaat” and enjoyed early success before experiencing a career slump. However, the advent of streaming platforms has given the actor a second act, allowing him to explore complex, unconventional roles far removed from his earlier larger-than-life characters.

Speaking to Variety, Deol says the fan response remains extraordinary. “It’s kind of overwhelming when you get so much love and keep getting more and more love from the audiences. Thirty years, what better way to celebrate with especially with your fans, and to have such a big, successful web series: ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood.’”

The actor credits streaming platforms with fundamentally altering his career trajectory. “It all changed with OTT platforms for me, because that gave me my first chance to do something different,” he says. His Netflix film “Class of 83” (2020), a gritty police drama set in 1980s Mumbai, marked the beginning — but it was the Amazon MX Player series “Aashram,” in which he played a sinister godman, that truly changed perceptions. “It released one week later, and it just overshadowed ‘Class of 83’ completely. I still, till date, whenever I meet Prakash Ji [director Prakash Jha], I can’t come to terms with it, but it took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that what did he see in me to cast me as Baba Nirala.”

That role signaled to the industry that he was capable of far more than his initial career suggested. “That was the beginning of everything, because people started having belief and faith in me as an actor that, OK, Bobby doesn’t just have to be how I was in my beginning of my career. He can play different characters,” he says.

Deol’s performance as a mute antagonist in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s violent crime saga “Animal” (2023) proved pivotal to his resurgence and led directly to his collaboration with Anurag Kashyap on “Bandar” (Monkey in a Cage), a raw prison drama that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September. After “Animal’s” release, Kashyap called Deol and spoke to him for 45 minutes, expressing admiration for his evolution as an actor. The validation from a filmmaker he’d long admired left Deol both thrilled and anxious.

“I’d been wanting to work with Anurag since years,” Deol says, recalling their various encounters over the decades, from when Kashyap was still a writer visiting his home, to running into each other at their children’s martial arts events and at the gym. “As a director, I’ve always loved his work, and he always gets something different out of every actor he works with.”

The night before his first day of shooting on “Bandar,” sleep eluded him. “I’m like wondering to myself, ‘What have I done that has made Anurag want to work with me?’” At 3 a.m., he put on Netflix and watched “Animal” again, trying to understand what others saw in his performance. “I still couldn’t figure it out, because obviously, as actors, you can’t figure out certain times when things change in your life and what you’ve been waiting for — that moment — happens. It’s like, surreal. It’s like a dream.”

After only an hour of sleep, Deol headed to set, where the experience proved transformative. “Working with Anurag was like being in a workshop. I always give myself completely to my director, and working with Anurag was like going to this acting coach, being with him and giving yourself up — no inhibitions, nothing. Just give yourself completely.”

Kashyap’s communication style made that vulnerability possible. “I think that’s because of the way he communicates with his actors. And I guess that’s the reason why people enjoyed my work in the film, because for me, it was totally out of my image, my everything.”

The process allowed him to learn more about himself. “Every time you’re working on a project, you kind of start understanding different aspects of your emotions,” he says. The film was completed in just 23 days.

“Bandar” marked Deol’s first festival premiere at Toronto’s 50th anniversary, where he also represented his father for the festival’s golden jubilee celebration of “Sholay,” one of the greatest Indian films of all time. “I never imagined going to a film festival. I mean, never thought that a movie of mine will be premiered at a festival,” he says. “And what better way to celebrate — it was the 50th year of TIFF, and I also got the opportunity to represent my father for ‘Sholay’s 50 years. It was like being in India.”

Deol’s decision to join Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan’s directorial debut — the Netflix series “The Ba***ds of Bollywood,” a behind-the-scenes drama exploring the underbelly of the Hindi-language film industry — stemmed from industry solidarity and parental empathy. “I’m a parent myself, and I’m from this industry, and I’d want anyone to be there to stand by me when my sons are getting into this industry,” he says. “I know that Shah Rukh is that kind of a person who would stand by me, or so many people I know in my industry, and I just felt that positive feeling and that emotion and when I got the call, I just said that I’m doing it.”

What began as support became something more substantial after a long meeting with Aryan Khan. “I sat with him for seven hours and heard the whole story because it’s seven episodes, and I just was taken in by his conviction, by his writing, by his thoughts, by his maturity,” he says. “Every time you talk to a director, I always believe you get scripts to read. But when you sit with them and you hear it from them narrating to you, you get a better idea of what they’re visualizing. So I think I just got lucky.”

Deol praises Khan’s approach to the material. “The show, whatever it is, it’s all because of Aryan. I think that child has done a great job. So mature, his conviction, his instincts, his fearlessness, and to give something which is so different yet so connecting. It’s about things you’ve seen, but at the same time it is so differently approached.”

The series’ success, he argues, stems from its comprehensive storytelling. “I think every character in the show is something you’ll remember, not just one person. That happens very rarely. It only when the writing is good and when the direction is good that every actor tries to work hard. But it can only be seen if the captain of the ship can bring it out.”

The series explores Bollywood myths and realities in a very insider way. “I think it’s just making fun of yourself in a way, it’s just being absolutely open,” he says. “It’s a fiction, end of the day. So how do you entertain people? You bring out elements, you show elements, so people discuss them and get excited about it. As it is, ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’ is a show based on all the myths of the Bollywood industry. Because stories can’t be written if there’s no truth behind it. But most of the stories which are created for cinema or for OTT platforms, they have to be fictionalized, because you got to make it more juicier and more interesting.”

Asked whether being born into the industry but experiencing career setbacks gives him unique insight into how Bollywood treats talent, Deol offers a measured perspective. “I think it works for any kind of industry, for any profession. Being an insider was my luck, because I was born in this family. I never asked to be born in this house.” His father, he notes, was an outsider who struggled for years before his first break.

“Definitely being an insider, I have experienced ups and downs, and I’ve learned from that. So yes, I’m lucky to be Dharmendra’s son, and I’m just so proud about that,” he says. “But at the same time, it’s not easy for anybody. You can be an insider, an outsider. You have to work hard. The only thing that any parent would do for the child is spend their own money to launch you. They have worked so hard that they want the kids to live a very happy life, so they would spend every penny to make things for them. But after that, you have to make every penny worth it with your hard work.”

His journey from a strong start through difficult years to his current resurgence carries particular meaning because his aging parents have witnessed it. “I’m happy that I went through a great start and a bad middle, and now again, I have succeeded to a certain level. And I’m so proud that my parents have seen that, because my parents are growing old, and I wanted that to happen for them,” he says.

“I’ve always felt that I could never live up to my dad’s expectations. I was always this little Bob, the youngest in the house, his golden child, because you end up being the youngest and you end up getting all that affection,” he adds.

The turning point came with his father’s validation. “The biggest compliment I ever got was from my father, like four, five years back, saying that ‘now you’ve understood yourself as an actor’ and ‘I’m very proud of you.’ I think that made me feel very happy, because that’s what I wanted to hear, and I’m really proud of that.”

Having lived through single-screen theaters, the multiplex wave, and now streaming, Deol remains format-agnostic. “I never think about which medium I’m going to be part of in that sense. For me, things have evolved because times are changing. You have to move with the times. So you have to do things according to how the times are moving. Because to exist, you have to be in sync with what’s happening.”

Still, he waxes nostalgic about the communal experience of single-screen cinemas. “The magic of single screen is something else. I’ve grown up watching movies in single screens, and I’ve seen people going crazy. The atmosphere in a single screen is completely something you really, really become a part of when you’re sitting there in the theater.”

Nevertheless, he embraces evolution. “But then multiplex, it had to come, the time had to evolve, and then OTT platforms. I really am happy that OTT platforms exist, because it changed my life. And I think all of them can coexist. It’s just how the creators, they have to be honest with their work and try to do their best.”

Deol also expresses nostalgia for earlier eras of filmmaking. “I always say that I wish I was born in the 30s so I could have been an actor in the 50s and enjoy the golden period and be a part of everything that was done for the first time, because there was so much honesty and sincerity and passion.” Though he hasn’t experienced it himself, he’s heard stories from his father about the kind of filmmakers and the honesty that pervaded that era.

Today’s landscape is different. “But now people have changed. They’ve evolved. Everyone’s living a tough life because it is becoming tougher out there. So there’s no time to get entertained besides seeing things on your mobile phone or your laptop or sitting somewhere, waiting in a lounge. But I’m just glad that these 30 years I’ve actually had a great time and I’m just happy, and I’m so lucky that I’m doing what I love the most still.”

Looking ahead, Deol has “Alpha” releasing Dec. 25, the latest installment in producer Aditya Chopra’s YRF Spy Universe, directed by Shiv Rawail, son of Rahul Rawail who directed his brother Sunny Deol’s first film “Betaab” (1983). “Rahul directed my brother’s first film. And now Shiv, his son is directing his first film, and I’m a part of it, so it makes it special.”

While he occasionally contemplates directing, Deol admits it’s not his calling. “I think I wish I could direct. Sometimes, every actor thinks they want to direct, because as an actor, you start imagining and thinking how the story moves and how that character would react, and how that person would do things. But I’m not someone who can control people. I can’t multitask. So I wish I was a director, but I can’t be one.”

His focus now is on continuing to push boundaries. “I am just glad that my audiences have helped me. The love they’ve given me is giving me the opportunities now to do work which is out of my comfort zone, and just keep surprising myself and surprising the audiences with what I can do. That’s what I’m hoping for.”