Had a tough time breaking my image, says Bobby Deol

Yas Island (Abu Dhabi): Actor Bobby Deol, who will next be seen playing the antagonist in Tamil star Suriya’s movie “Kanguva”, says it was “tough” to break his onscreen hero image.

After a dull phase in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Deol saw a revival with the success of multi-starrers such as "Race 3" and "Housefull 4". His career took off in a big way after the Netflix feature film "Class of 83" and Prakash Jha’s web series "Aashram" garnered critical acclaim.

Last year’s blockbuster hit “Animal”, in which he played the villain, changed things for him overnight. There are reports that the actor will star as an antagonist in the Alia Bhatt-starrer “Alpha”.

Asked whether the industry is capitalising on his villainous avatar, Deol told PTI in a group media interaction: “When you do a role, you get similar kinds of roles (being offered), but this is something that has been happening for years. It’s not that it is happening now.

"It was a tough time... to change my image and finally, I’ve changed my image and I’ve done characters that are different from each other.” The actor was speaking on the green carpet of IIFA Awards 2024 on Saturday, where he received the award for best performance in a negative role for "Animal".

Deol said he can’t talk about “Alpha” at the moment and is hoping the audience will love him in “Kanguva”, set to be released on November 14.

Son of Bollywood veteran Dharmendra, the actor made a promising lead 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", before experiencing a dry spell at the movies.

The actor believes everyone goes through ups and downs.

“I don’t like to look and think, ‘Oh my god! I went through that period’. It’s a journey every person goes through in life. If you work hard, a day comes when you get some (kind of) acknowledgement,” he added.

On the IIFA awards stage, Deol also shook a leg with Shahid Kapoor on his popular track "Tera Rang Balle Balle" from 1998's “Soldier”.