He is riding high on a string of hits. Actor Ajay Devgn says he feels vindicated that camps don't bring you lasting success in an industry looking for plugs in the media to blow one's trumpet. “My work speaks for me. I don't need to scream from the rooftop. I talk to the media at the time of the film's release and then go back to work.” It is that time of the year. As “Singham” faces no competition in theatres this Friday, we catch the star at Hotel Hilton New Delhi.
Edited excerpts from an interview:
You have not been known to concentrate on your looks. But this time the cut-outs with bare torso tell a different story. Are you compelled by the times?
Concentrating on the looks is not really new. I have always adapted myself to the need of the character. “Singham” is more like a lion, so the character demanded a toned body. The fact is, I have been working out for the last ten years but I have never taken off my shirt for effect.
From the promos the character looks forthright, quite unlike the intense, layered roles you are known for.
It is much simpler and upfront. I have not played a character, which has a strong body and a simple mind. People connect well with a simple, straight man because when he is wronged, audience side with him. And when his mind goes awry and he hits back they applaud. The trials suggest that it is a clap and whistle film.
So you must have worked hard on the character.
I never prepare hard for my characters. Many people don't believe it but it is a fact. I don't come prepared for the shot and I would like to forget the shot once it is canned. I feel most troubled when the director says the way you did it was great; now let's shoot it again from the side profile because I don't know how I did it.
The intensity of your eyes is talked about a lot. Does it make you conscious?
If it will, I will lose my spontaneity. It will look rehearsed. I just want to play different characters with honesty. Some are liked, some are not. That's part of the game.
Director Rohit Shetty says that choosing you as “Singham” had also something to do with the fact that Suriya did the original Tamil version. You two seem to operate in a similar zone.
I watched the original and felt I should play this character. Rohit has taken the character and the basic idea and has changed it into something new. It is a son-of-the-soil kind of character, somebody, who grew up ploughing the field. It is not shown but is implicit. He is an inspector in his own village, who resolves the cases on his own. No case is filed. Instead of going by the book he feels if you give two tight slaps and make the two parties hug each other most cases could be resolved. The film is about what happens when such a character is transferred to a city, how he handles the manipulative and corrupt people. When he tries to apply his rather naïve rules in the city, situations become worthy of claps and whistles.
Except for the “Golmaal” series, you had stopped playing to the galleries?
This is for the intelligent audience. It is the intelligent audience which is clapping and whistling. There was a phase when we felt that we have to make overtly smart cinema but then we discovered after the success of “Wanted” and “Dabangg” that audience want entertainment irrespective of the fact that whether one can afford the multiplex ticket or one has to watch films at the single screen theatre. “Once Upon A Time in Mumbai” was an intelligent film but at the same time it crossed over to the masses. “Ready” has done well both at multiplex and single screens.
The general perception is that you are trying to enter the Salman Khan territory?
It is not like that. My entry into films was through an action film. It is just that I was not getting the right script for a long time. For long I have been getting fan mails advising me to return to action. People are making comparisons because Salman Khan also donned a uniform in “Dabangg”. The story is different. In the new generation, we have many talented actors but there is no action hero. I don't think in the new crop we have any actor who can play this kind of role. Besides me, only Salman and to an extent Akshay, can play a “Singham” kind of character. We now belong to the senior lot. And we did action 20 years back.
Subhash Ghai says you people are paying a tribute to his kind of cinema.
Of course, we are paying a tribute. We are definitely making the kind of films that he used to make but we have packaged them according to needs of the contemporary audience, something directors like him failed to do in the last few years.
Does the surge of remakes suggest lack of creativity?
Remakes are nothing new. For more than four decades we have been remaking films from the South and they are getting inspired by our films. It is just that now the media has become big and talks a lot more about it.
You have completed two decades in the industry. How do you see the journey considering you were neither a superstar's son nor a rank outsider?
My father was a star in his own right. First, I was told this face won't work. When a couple of films worked, people – a section of the industry and the media – said that I could do only certain type of films. “Zakhm” changed the way for me. People said Wah! He is an actor. But it was again followed by a lull but when I look back I find that in 20 years of my career there are only two years when I have not given a hit. But I don't analyse too much. I do a film and forget it. This Saturday I will forget “Singham”.
You also come from a Punjabi family but nobody (except for a Bhagat Singh) tried to make you the face of the fraternity on screen.
I think it's a plus point that the characters I play don't necessarily reflect my roots. However, it is also true that I never got an opportunity to play a hardcore Punjabi. Now I am producing a film where Sanjay Dutt and I will play sardars.
What about “Bol Bachchan”?
We have bought the rights of original “Golmaal” and have changed it considerably. It has Abhishek Bachchan and I playing the two principal characters.
