Being Ajay Devgan: B'wood topgun

For an everyday film hero to shake a leg, to bash up the bad guys and to serve up slapstick are necessary tools of the trade; to be able to act is a lucky bonus. Therefore, in a career spanning 70 films, Ajay Devgan has gone from the ‘ridiculous’ to the ‘sublime’. Having won the National Award not just once but twice, Devgan, the actor, relies on understatement to make his point.

Anuradha SenGupta: Shakespeare spans love, hate, jealousy, separation, comedy, fun, magic. For a Hindi film actor, Shakespeare is not a subject that is alien. Is it?

Ajay Devgan: No, not at all. It’s a universal emotion when we talk about things like love and jealousy. Emotions all over the world are the same, that’s how you adapt to your own culture.

Anuradha SenGupta: But did you read Othello to get into the skin of the character Omkara?

Ajay Devgan: Not really. When Vishal (Bharadwaj) came to me and narrated the story, I did read the synopsis in English. I really liked it and said that it sounded interesting. I asked him why didn’t he finish work on the script and then we could take a call on it. By the time he came up with the final script, I felt he had done a great job.

Anuradha SenGupta: Thus, it was clear that you were going to play the main character Othello or the Omkara in the film?

Ajay Devgan: Yes, it was pretty much clear right from the beginning.

Anuradha SenGupta: Do you think Othello is a strong man or a weak man?

Ajay Devgan: That’s confusing. He appears very strong initially, physically, mentally and decision-making wise. Then he takes drastic steps and drastic decisions.

I would not call him a weak character though he gets carried away emotionally in some places that appear to be his true weaknesses.

Anuradha SenGupta: The theme of Othello, where there is a strong person who gets weakened because someone prays on his insecurity and weaknesses, is that something a film star or someone who is associated with the film industry can perhaps relate to very strongly?

Ajay Devgan: Of course. Forget about the film industry, anyone who has some magnitude of power will relate to it. When you talk about power, position or money, people who have something to lose will obviously feel more insecure.

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Anuradha SenGupta: Is this something that you could relate to as a star?

Ajay Devgan: As a human being, I could definitely relate to it, but not as a star. As a star, you would be more worried about your position in things like this. And that is not what is there in the film. It’s all about love. It is basically a love story that has nothing to do with a star. All it has got to do with is the human emotions, which could be mine, yours or anybody else’s.

Anuradha SenGupta: Ajay Devgan is a film star, no doubt about that. And yet, he is not a film star. Am I correct in making that statement?

Ajay Devgan: I really don’t know why do you say that.

Anuradha SenGupta: It's because, you don’t seem to come with the frills. You are much disciplined, professional as one gets to see.

Ajay Devgan: The only thing I can say is that I have not allowed myself to change with success or failures. I have always been what I was. I think that is the reason why you say whatever you are saying, whether it is good or bad.

Anuradha SenGupta: It’s just an observation, it’s not a judgment.

Ajay Devgan:Yes. It’s just that I have always been the way I was before I became a star, or became an actor. I used to think the same way as I think today. Just the difference is that you tend to become a little more responsible with your age, family and success.

Anuradha SenGupta: What were you like when you were growing up?

Ajay Devgan: I was a normal child. I had my share of doing things that were right and wrong, from pranks, running away from studies to not attending college, everything.

Anuradha SenGupta: I met Prabhu Deva on this show recently and he said that as he did class 10th and 12th terribly. Only thing he could think of becoming was either a peon or a constable. So, he decided to be a dancer, he said.

Ajay Devgan: For me also, it was the same. I was sure that whatever I do would be associated with the film industry. That was the only exposure I have had. If anyone asks me what would I be had I not an actor, I will probably have no answer for it. Undoubtedly, whatever I would be doing will be very much within the film industry.

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Anuradha SenGupta: That was also a heritage that came to you naturally?

Ajay Devgan: I guess so. I was lucky enough to not have had to struggle, much like many newcomers. I think I was very lucky as I was forced to do a film when I did not even want to do it. I was just chilling out and enjoying college when I was suddenly asked to do the film Phool aur Kaante. Within 15 days, we were shooting for it and in the next six months the film was released and was a big hit.

I wasn’t even tense whether it would work or not. The attitude was if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. I would have simply got back to do what I was doing. I was more on the technical side. I used to edit with my father and even became an assistant director with him. I always enjoyed that and also made some short films. I was the cameraperson, technician, editor -- everything except being an actor.

Anuradha SenGupta: Is being an actor a sort of burden for you? Is there a director or a technician hidden in you that’s not getting the chance to let out?

Ajay Devgan: It’s not about getting a chance. If I want, I could go ahead and do it. Sometimes, I do feel that I would be better of doing that (direction), enjoy it more and understand it more than what I am doing right now.

Anuradha SenGupta: When I saw Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, that is the day I discovered Ajay Devgan, the actor. I am not saying that there were no projects before that, but for every person, there is a discovery. In Company, it was sealed. Do you feel it is when you play the underdog, that’s when you connect with people most because may be we are all underdogs in our heart.

Ajay Devgan: It’s just that some characters take such beautiful shape. The credit also goes to the other characters that are around. It’s the director whose thought is conceived in a particular character. It could be a loud character; it could be a character that perhaps you are talking about.

Anuradha SenGupta: When do you think you made the transition from being an action hero then the regular Hindi film hero, to the more intense actor. Let’s peep a little into what you really are.

Ajay Devgan: The transition does not happen with one single film. I am trying to be honest here. If you ask which day or with which film did you change, I don’t think I can answer. You do not realise that your image has undergone a transition until the film releases and you see it for yourself. You try and work hard in each film. Some characters are appreciated while some are not. Somewhere, you do not know what went wrong and at times you may also not know as to what went right with a particular film. So, this is a process. That does not mean that the characters that are appreciated are closer to your heart while others are not.

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Anuradha SenGupta: But there could be some characters or some films in your body of work that you appreciated. What about Malik in Company that everybody thought was so cool?

Ajay Devgan: When I got a reaction for Company, when people saw the film, I thought I had hardly did anything. Frankly, I didn’t even make an effort to act in the first place. The kind of reaction I got for the film was not at all expected. I was also shocked for a while figuring out what is it really that I have done. If I was asked to sit there, I was sitting there all throughout the scene. I wasn’t even thinking that the camera is on. I wasn’t even working on being that character. Instead of thinking about what the character would do, I started thinking what the character won’t do, and wasn’t just doing that. I did not even think the film is going to work, so I gave all credit to Ramu.

Anuradha SenGupta: You tend to do that. You seem to credit your directors all the time.

Ajay Devgan: Why not? In every film, director works equally hard. How the character is being placed, how the director is seeing it is most important.

Anuradha SenGupta: It is exciting isn’t it that today there are films that are not just limited to just two stars or a bunch of co stars. We have this trend of making multi-star caste films and that, too, not in an old fashioned way.

Ajay Devgan: Earlier, a hero was supposed to play a hero and a villain was supposed to play a villain. But today, it has become more character-oriented. You are not bothered even if you have just 10 scenes in the entire film. As long as you know that the character is very interesting for those 10 scenes also, you know you are there. Not just me, many of my colleagues also feel the same way.

Anuradha SenGupta: What has brought about this change?

Ajay Devgan: I think the audience because they have started accepting cinema which is becoming more sensible. We only do what is accepted because what is not accepted won’t work, so what’s the point?

Anuradha SenGupta: Does that bothers you sometimes? Not now necessarily, because now there seems to be more acceptance to experiment? Are you relieved now?

Ajay Devgan: I am relieved and happy also. Earlier if I used to hear 10 scripts and about 10 different characters, they all sounded the same. You weren’t really enjoying work. Still you thought, let’s do two out of 10, but even those two would be similar. But today, you are satisfied that today you have completed one film, which is different. For example Golmaal, which is an out-and-out comedy, and the next month you are doing Omkara, which is an intense film. So you have that kind of satisfaction that you are trying different things and different things are being accepted.

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Anuradha SenGupta: It’s a good time to be an actor in Indian cinema.

Ajay Devgan: Not just an actor, I think just to be in Indian cinema.

Anuradha SenGupta: What’s with all these commercials you are co-starring with your wife in? Is it like let’s make some money?

Ajay Devgan: Not many, just two.

Anuradha SenGupta: Tata Indicom and I don’t know what else.

Ajay Devgan: Tata Indicom and Whirlpool. That’s it. They’ve shot a lot of commercials because they worked. The sales worked, so they wanted to take it further. So for me, it’s not that we were making a lot of money and that’s why we did so many commercials. It’s just that they were two endorsements and they were shot more.

Anuradha SenGupta: But endorsements come in handy, don’t they?

Ajay Devgan: Of course, and I’m enjoying it also because I try my best to not just stand and pose. If you’ve seen the Tata commercial, every time they come with a script, it’s for a different character. Very often they are characters that I haven’t even played in films and it’s comfortable doing it for 30 seconds.

Anuradha SenGupta: I was talking to Prasoon Joshi and he told me something interesting. He said that when they were shooting that film, he had just started reading something on Islam — books and watching DVDs and I believe you were also interested and curious and you said let me also read that.

Ajay Devgan:Yes, it’s just I like reading about religion. I don’t read a lot of fiction. In fact, I don’t read much at all.

Anuradha SenGupta: From what little I have read, Kajol reads a lot of fiction.

Ajay Devgan: She reads a lot, yes. So, I like knowing about things in whatever format, if it’s a DVD or if it’s a thinner book then it’s fine. Otherwise, I don’t finish it.

Anuradha SenGupta: So when you read about Islam, is there anything that you were left with?

Ajay Devgan: No, I knew most of it. It’s just a DVD. It’s nothing that I read. But it just talks about Islam and what it really means and how it has been distorted. So there were some nice things in it.

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Anuradha Sengupta: You are a Mumbai boy or rather a Bombay boy. About the things that have been happening in the city, what do you feel about it as a citizen? The rains that happened last year, the blasts and the whole thing of the Mumbaikar, the spirit of Bombay.

Ajay Devgan: Don’t you think, we have all stopped feeling anything about it?

Anuradha Sengupta: I think so.

Ajay Devgan: You forget the next day because it has started happening so often and you really don’t know whom to blame. So I’m not really sure about what I feel today. Initially, you felt that it was wrong. You felt anger and a lot of things, but now it’s just a normal thing. It’s like ‘Oh this has happened, oh so sad’, and you are doing your own thing.

If you want me to turn around and say that I was very upset the day the blasts happened and that I sat sulking in one corner crying, that doesn’t happen to anybody any more. You get upset, and then your mind gets diverted and you start doing something else. I think we are getting it because we know that no one is doing anything about it and you yourself are not doing anything about it. Sometimes, you wonder what you can do.

Anuradha Sengupta: You know Ajay, I think that is the most candid reaction to what is happening around us that I have heard in public.

Ajay Devgan: But don’t you think it is true?

Anuradha Sengupta: I agree with you. But not many people are brave enough to admit that this is the way we have become.

Ajay Devgan: But why not? This is the way we have become. For example, corruption. We have now accepted it as a part of our society. We are not trying to fight it anymore. You are not even shocked or upset if you see someone taking money. It’s now like ‘Yes, I know, just give him something.’ It’s become a part of our society. It has become a part of us. So we are not fighting it. Now, we don’t even have the time to fight it because it is happening everywhere. Though I believe that corruption is not just in our country, there is a difference between corruption here and outside.

In other countries, if you are doing something wrong, you have to pay money to get out of it. But in our country, even if you are doing something right, you have to pay something.

Anuradha Sengupta: You have this quality that traditionally in India we appreciate a lot which is being quiet and seemingly calm.

Ajay Devgan: I’m not a very quiet person and you are making me talk a lot today.

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Anuradha Sengupta: People say I do that, I must admit.

Ajay Devgan: You do. But I’m not a very quiet person.

Anuradha Sengupta: But that is the image that we have come to see.

Ajay Devgan: I just talk to people when I’m comfortable with them and I feel like talking. But if you see me with friends and family, I talk a lot. It’s just that I don’t want to talk unnecessarily.

Anuradha Sengupta: So, it’s a case of ‘still waters run deep’.

Ajay Devgan: I really don’t know.

Anuradha Sengupta: So I’ll ask you one final question and then let you go and stop you from all this talking that you say we forced you to do. How did it feel to see Kajol in Fanaa?

Ajay Devgan: Honestly speaking, I still have to see it since I wasn’t here. I still have to see the film and I’m going to see it very soon.

Anuradha Sengupta: You could get into trouble for admitting such things.

Ajay Devgan: Yes, you should not be asking me this question. But I’m going to see it.

Anuradha Sengupta: What about your production? You are a passionate filmmaker, aren’t you?

Ajay Devgan: I’m working on a few scripts, but I have nothing planned as yet. I want to take my time to decide what I should be doing.

Anuradha Sengupta: You want to just be, isn’t it?

Ajay Devgan: Yes, I’m just relaxing. I’m basically a lazy person.

Anuradha Sengupta: Ajay Devgan, I don’t know what you are and I don’t know how much you have actually revealed to us, very little. But we really enjoy watching you. You know what our favourites are. Thank you very much.