Sunday, May 4, 2003		In The Spotlight

Basking in the sun
Gautam Grover

IN an industry where stars are born every Friday, Sunny Deol has played a fairly long innings. He started out with Betaab in 1983. Today, 20 years and two national awards later, he continues to play the action hero, commanding a hefty fee and a loyal fan following that rivals Shahrukh Khan’s.

"I guess I have been lucky to get interesting roles at the right times in my career," says the 45-year-old, basking in the glory of his just-released The Hero. He plays an Indian James Bond in this spy thriller with Preity Zinta and Priyanka Chopra for company.

The last time Sunny played a spy was in a film that went under cover in the box-office. "Himmat was a bad film," he admits, pointing out that the best spy flick Bollywood ever made was the one in which his father, Dharmendra starred.

"Aankhen was a great film," he remarks. "Unfortunately, they don’t make such films any more. Every filmmaker wants to copy James Bond with a whole lot of senseless action. The only Bond film that had an emotional element to it was The Spy Who Loved Me."

Oddly enough, Sunny has had his moments to demonstrate his tender side (as in Sohni Mahiwal), but it is the image of a brash loud-mouthed, angry young man he has been able to carry so convincingly through from Arjun and Ghayal that has lasted — till his last mega-hit, Gadar - Ek Prem Katha.

"Probably, the public loves to see me worked up," he smiles. "But frankly, I don’t get angry so easily, unless of course, someone rubs me the wrong way for no reason. I’ve got into fights, beaten up people and got beaten myself. The point is anger is not about brute strength, but emotional intensity."

He, however, admits that he tends to be uncomfortable in a crowd of strangers: "My fear is how people are going to behave towards me. Once I see warmth around me, I relax. But people often ask me how I can act when I am so shy. I tell them, it’s my profession — a job I have to do."

Sunny reveals that if he has to look up to anybody for inspiration today, it is no longer his father but US tennis star Andre Agassi. "I am amazed at the way he has sustained the high level of dedication and drive throughout this long tennis career," says Sunny.

"I am also very self-critical. I try to improve up on my performance with every movie. I don’t even watch my earlier films. The idea is to rise above your present level and reach a certain height to see what is on the other side. I still have to attain that maturity."

Right now, he is preparing to direct his second film (after the disastrous Dillagi) with his father, brother Bobby and himself in the leads. "I am still looking out for the right script which will do justice to the screen images of the three of us. It will be an expensive project. So I need to make some money before starting it."

The money would come from some period films as well as sequels to his earlier films. For instance, there’s dance director Ahmed Khan making a sequel to Arjun, one of the earlier hits in Sunny’s career. In it, he would play the character of Arjun Malvankar once again.

"I think Ghayal too has a great potential of being made into a sequel," he points out. "Also in Damini, my character as an alcoholic lawyer can be fleshed out further. But then, we do not have many good scriptwriters and directors who are willing to take their chances with new genres of filmmaking." MF