Abhay Deol calls Dev D director Anurag Kashyap ‘gaslighter’, enters North-South debate: ‘There’s a mish-mash taking place’

Actor Abhay Deol revealed that he was relatively ‘put off’ when he couldn’t dub for himself in a South movie, the place he performed a villain. The movie in query was the 2019 Tamil flick, Hero, which starred Sivakarthikeyan, Arjun Sarja, Ivana and Kalyani Priyadarshan. Abhay performed the function of Mahadev, a corrupt genetic scientist.

Speaking to Bollywood Hungama, Abhay spoke concerning the incident and mentioned, “It was really tough for me to learn the language — I couldn’t just rattle off anything. I had to say the words. I wanted to dub for myself, but they said my accent was too strong, but he (the character) is a North Indian, let there be an accent. I worked really hard in getting the words, but they said the accent was strong. So I said, you approached me as a North Indian, and have me playing the North Indian, so why can’t I have an accent? That put me off. If I can’t use my own voice, I said I’m not going to do it again.”

Abhay additionally commented on the following North-South debate and added that Bollywood cinema is a ‘part’ of India cinema, identical to Bengali and Tamil cinema. He mentioned, “The South Indian film industry has always existed and have always had their audience. It’s just that if you’re from the North, and watching news related to that—you’re just not watching news related to outside it. You’re ignorant of that existence, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Similarly, someone from the South might not watch Hindi cinema, and is ignorant of the Hindi stars. They’ve always co-existed. Now, we’re embracing a larger Indian identity than just the regional belt — and Bollywood could be considered regional too, as it appeals to the Hindi belt. Now, there’s a bit of mish-mash happening because you realise, oh ‘Baahubali looks great’, or ‘this actor looks interesting, let’s take him in a different language movie’ and vice-versa.”

Abhay Deol additionally made his disdain for filmmaker Anurag Kashyap recognized. During a rapid-fire interview he needed to give a t-shirt with a descriptive phrase to celebrities. While praising Katrina Kaif, Farhan Akhtar and Shah Rukh Khan, when it got here to Anurag Kashyap, he described him as a ‘gaslighter’. Anurag Kashyap had labored with Abhay Deol for the 2008 movie, Dev D, which grew to become a milestone in Abhay’s profession.  Earlier on this interview, with out taking anybody’s identify, Abhay revealed how he didn’t like advertising himself when he had began out, as he needed the movie to talk for itself. However, he talked about that sure filmmakers and producers didn’t approve, and he was ‘gaslit’ into considering that he didn’t care sufficient for the movie.

Anurag Kashyap has expressed his views on Abhay Deol earlier than, as properly. While chatting with The Huffpost in a profile on Abhay, Kashyap had mentioned, “It was painfully difficult to work with him. I don’t really have great working memories with him. And haven’t talked to him much since I finished shooting.”

Kashyap added, “He wanted to do artistic movies but also wanted the mainstream benefits. The benefits and luxuries of being a Deol. He would stay in a five-star hotel while the entire crew stayed in Paharganj for a film that was made on a very tight budget. Also the reason a lot of his directors went away from him.”