Actor Abhay Deol who made his debut in Imtiaz Ali’s film “Socha Na Tha” has come a long way. Since then he has received praise for his roles in movies, including “Ahista Ahista”, “Manorama Six Feet Under”, “Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye”, “Dev D”, “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” and “Raanjhanaa”. He is on television hosting the latest season of “Gumrah” which is being aired on Channel V.
Abhay in an interview with Friday Review talks about the pressures and dilemmas faced growing up and his experience on the show.
Were you a regular viewer of the show before you were asked to host it?
I had seen the show before, but no, I wasn’t a regular viewer. The concept of the show appealed to me, it highlights real incidents, and brings them to the audience in a very obvious manner. The episodes are cautionary in so much as they show how some decisions may influence your life.
Are you involved in the decision of what stories appear on the show?
My involvement extends to showing up on time and learning the dialogue (laughs). I discuss the story with the team, but I don’t get involved in deciding what stories would appear on the show. I sit down with the director and the writer and understand what they want to convey in the episode, what I should focus on, what I should highlight, but beyond that I don’t make the choice of what stories appear on the show.
With the show featuring real life stories, how do you make sure that the subject is treated with the required sensitivity?
When you deal with real stories, there is always a concern about portraying it sensitively, the question of how to deal with it is always there. You have to walk the knife’s edge on this, being the narrator, you have to be sure to stay away from judgment and present it in the most neutral manner possible. While doing this, you have to make sure that the message is suitably conveyed too. In my experience on the show, I tried to be as sensitive as possible, but some bias does creep in at times, you have to make sure that you handle it properly.
How did you deal with pressures of growing up? Coping with peer pressure and dealing with the issues which arise in a young adult’s life?
When you’re young, you’re young. You don’t have experience to deal with things, and there are times when you have to make decisions which will impact your life. You do have bad experiences, but then you only grow from them. You have to be the judge, and have to see what repercussions your decisions will have.
Now But now that you are older, what advice would you give to youngsters who face these challenges?
What I would say is that you’ll make your mistakes, just be careful that your decisions don’t harm anybody else. You have to deal with situations sometimes as an adult, despite being young.
