Looking forward to next 25 years of my career: Bobby Deol on reinventing as actor

Actor Bobby Deol, who went through a lull phase in his career, before seeing a renaissance in 2018, is now looking forward to next 25 years of his career. The actor said the two past decades have been full of lessons that will help him in future.

New Delhi: Actor Bobby Deol says his 25 year-long journey in Hindi film industry has taught him that having faith in oneself is the key to move forward and grow above failures.

Son of Bollywood veteran Dharmendra, the actor made a promising debut with Rajkumar Santoshi's Barsaat opposite another star child Twinkle Khanna in 1995. He followed it up with hits like Gupt, Soldier, Ajnabee, Bichhoo, and Humraaz.

But then he went through a lull phase in the late 2000s and early 2010s, before seeing a renaissance in his career with multi-starrer hits like Race 3 and Housefull 4.

Deol said the two past decades have been full of lessons that will help him in future.

"You learn from every moment of your life and experiences. So I have learnt a lot. I have learned how much you have to be in focus and how to have faith in yourself. To have faith to make things happen for yourself," the actor told PTI.

"If you don't have faith in yourself, you won't be able to move forward. This is something I learnt after spending 25 years in this industry. A newfound faith in myself has really made me move forward again. I now look forward to the next 25 years of my career because there is nothing else I can take up, apart from being an actor," he added.

Deol said like many people, he is also bound to make mistakes but it is essential to learn from them.

"Everybody makes mistakes and takes wrong decisions, but you learn from them. You will still make mistakes in life but when you understand them that's the best thing that can happen."

In his second innings, the 51-year-old actor said he is looking for projects that will give him an opportunity to experiment.

"I'm deliberately looking for characters with different shades. I want to take up challenging roles that are out of my comfort zone. As an actor, you want to do all sorts of genres. You want to do comedy, thrillers, drama and realistic cinema. I want to do everything. I can't do just one kind of cinema all the time. Every time I come out with a project, it should feel different from what I did previously," he added.

Deol recently made his digital debut with the Netflix feature film Class of 83, which he followed up with Aashram, a web-series directed by Prakash Jha.

Produced by Red Chillies Entertainment, Class of '83 featured the actor as Dean Vijay Singh, an upright policeman-turned-trainer whose students grapple with the complexities of honour, morals and devotion to the nation.

Whereas Ashram, which released on MX Player, explores the blind faith of the masses in a 'god man', played by Deol.

The actor said he is happy with the favourable response to both the projects.

"The OTT platform is amazing. It gives an actor so many more opportunities to play diverse kinds of characters. I have been enjoying working on it. I didn't plan anything. I had two projects that came out last month and they both were different from each other.

"I have been receiving positive responses from my fans. They know I am trying to do something different with every project."

PTI Report