Actor Abhay Deol recently spoke about growing up in the ‘conservative’ Deol family, which has multiple members working in the film industry, how rebellious he was as a child and why cousins Sunny and Bobby Deol would say that he “argues a lot.”
In a conversation with Filmfare, Abhay who is known for his path-breaking roles in films like Manorama Six Feet Under (2007), Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), Dev D (2009), also recalled how his film choices were not always taken well by the family.
“While growing up we were pretty conservative, we were a joint family with seven kids in the house. Films were something I was exposed to from childhood, through my uncle and father. They came from humble backgrounds, they came from a village, and for them the big city and world of glamour was alien. They want to hold on to their small-town values, which I can see in retrospect. Back then I didn’t understand why were held back from going to ‘filmy parties’ as they call them, or mingle with the industry kids or the industry. They were trying to protect us, but back then I was confused,” he said.
Speaking about how he was perceived as ‘argumentative’ since childhood, Abhay shared, “What I did with the film industry, my family was not surprised at all. They always said I should either be a lawyer or an actor. If you ask Bobby or Sunny Deol, they will just tell you that I argue a lot. I started as a left-hander and they made me a right-hander, and I kept questioning it. Early in my career, the film choices I made, they were concerned. They did make my first movie Socha Na Tha, and they were okay with that, but with the later choices like Manorama or Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local, they made peace with my choices with Dev D and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. They just didn’t want me to go down that path because they were concerned. My father was worried, he hated Manorama because that was not a language they understood or a change they saw happening.”
“They had been in the industry long enough to know unless you didn’t capitalize on what’s the norm, you might be left behind,” he added.
On the work front, Abhay was last seen in the Netflix web series Trial By Fire (2023).
