Actor Deepak Dobriyal prefers to buy his own vegetables and queue up outside government offices. It’s not the quality of the groceries that concerns him but the chaos at markets which attracts him. It’s a perfect set-up to eavesdrop and collect the wittiest one-liners, which ultimately make their way into his on-screen characters.
The Omkara (2006) and Tanu Weds Manu (2011) actor can easily blend into a crowd. It’s a quality that has helped him as an actor, for Dobriyal can comfortably be a wallflower and observe ordinary people. His presence in a café in Bandra, where I meet him for an interview, is rather self-effacing. He is seated on a high-stool next to a window, wearing a navy blue sweatshirt, denims and a khaki-coloured cap. He sits around for hours, almost every evening in coffee shops, discussing cinema and acting with like-minded people, he tells me. Once lost in oblivion, the actor is now approached by people who insist on taking a picture with him. But he politely declines. “ Mere main abhi bhi woh struggler ka mindset hain, halaki abh paisa hai (I still have the mindset of a struggler, although I have money now),” he laughs, looking outside at a busy suburban afternoon.
Life in Mumbai is a far cry from the one Dobriyal led in Delhi as a theatre actor. Before completing 17 films in 11 years, the 43-year-old performed extensively on stage. In addition to plays written by Eugene O Neill, Dario Fo, William Shakespeare and Girish Karnad, the actor says he frequently performed for the labourers on the streets of Noida, Okhla and Rohini in the Capital. After moving to Mumbai, he struggled for more than three years while acting in ad films, eventually getting his big break in Maqbool (2003), but the role that got him noticed was three years later in Omkara . With a busy shooting schedule now, the actor has abandoned the stage for the screen.
Although his foundation is rooted in theatre, Dobriyal borrows very little from his Delhi days. Theatre, for him, is reactionary and requires preparation; films are casual, spontaneous and immersive. After his breakout role in Omkara , the actor built a filmography which positioned him as a comic actor, notably as the goofy Pappi in the Tanu Weds Manu franchise – an antithesis of the serious roles he played on stage. “ Survival ke liye comedy karta hoon ,” he says. “ Varnaghar kaise chalega aur rent kaun bharega ?” (I work with comedy for the bread and butter, otherwise how will I run the house and pay rent?)
Retaining the essence
Sure enough Dobriyal reinvented himself as an actor – across two cities and art forms – but the one quality he has retained is that of humility. “ Mere main ego nahi hain (I don’t have an ego),” he declares, pauses and then revisits his thought. “ Sirf jab party main jaata hoon aur thoda sa drink kar leta hoon, tab thoda ego aata hain (only when I go to a party and drink a little, I get a little egoistic),” he laughs.
Clearly a misfit in the celebrity culture of Bollywood, Dobriyal prefers to let his work speak. “ Log kehte hain, ‘party throw karo toh PR badta hain’. Woh sab bakwaas hain (People say throw a party for publicity. That’s rubbish),” he exclaims. There was a time when unsure about how to navigate the industry, Dobriyal signed on a series of films, based on the quality of the scripts.
A decade later, it’s the filmmaker who matters the most for Uttarakhand-born actor. “ Script aapko bohut baar fasa deti hain (the script can often fail you),” he reflects. The actor judges a filmmaker by the passion and sincerity reflected in his repertoire. If it’s a debut filmmaker offering him a role, Dobriyal insists on seeing her/his short films to determine the quality their skill. A doddering script is not entirely a deal breaker for him any more. " Kuch log mediocre script ko bhi apne life ka game changer bana dete hain (Some people can make a mediocre script the game changer of their lives),” he says.
Playing in partnership
Before signing on Akshat Verma’s Kaalakaandi , which releases today, Dobriyal watched Delhi Belly (2011), to judge the filmmaker’s writing. The actor counts Verma among the directors who seldom compromise on their vision. In the film, he plays a small-time underworld gangster along with Vijay Raaz, who deal with wads of cash on a regular basis, but are bankrupt themselves. The rising guilt in the span of a night drives their story.
Despite sharing space so intimately in the film, and carpooling with Raaz everyday while shooting Kaalakaandi , Dobriyal claims that he never discussed the role with him. The duo, who are neighbours in the city, have worked together previously in Delhi6 (2009) and numerous ad films. Dobriyal says Raaz is as energetic an actor as Jim Carrey, a trait he banked on to pull off a well-timed, spontaneous performance. Be it theatre or cinema, that’s what acting is for him – an organic exchange of reactions.
