Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol are two sides of the same coin, but they’re different. While Sunny is soft, emotional and an anti-thesis of his onscreen macho image, Bobby is casual and guarded about himself.
Bobby agrees he’s made mistakes and regrets not having focused on his career. But he’s set to make a comeback with Poster Boys with Sunny Deol, directed by debutante Shreyas Talpade. The film is a humourous take on vasectomy, and also has Shreyas, Sonali Kulkarni, Randheer Rai, Samiksha Bhatnagar and Bharti Achrekar.
“My brother is like my second father and he cares a lot for me. He doesn’t like to see anyone hurt. I’m still his baby brother,” says Bobby. Sunny butts in. “I’ve always adored him as a little brother. We are 10 years apart, and he’s like a son to me. We are all together and we’re strong. I feel bad that his career didn’t take off as expected. Let’s change the topic, I can’t talk about it,” he says, his eyes moist.
Bobby says being jobless for almost five years wasn’t easy. “People didn’t give me work. I was trying but nothing worked out. Now I’ve become positive. It’s showing on my face, in my body language. I hope after seeing this film, they’ll approach me with work. In the beginning I got a lot of work. But after a year to sustain and make the right choices is difficult. People stop approaching with work as some actor makes his debut. I was fighting my demons, but I’m blessed to have a wonderful family. You can’t cry and pity yourself. You have to come out of it and be positive. My father (Dharmendra) told me that he always considered himself a struggling artist. He told me to be disciplined and focused, and work hard,” says Bobby.
Being star children, they were often compared to their father. “It is inevitable. I was launched with Betaab, Bobby with Barsaat and Abhay with Socha Na Tha. We were launched well, but we had our own pressures to deal with,” says Sunny.
About their father, they say no actor can do justice to his roles. “He did all types of roles, and yet he was tagged as an action hero. He would be busy all the time. When we watch those films, we wonder how they shot them and under what circumstances,” says Sunny. Bobby would love to do Dharmendra’s Phool Aur Patthar (1966).
While the Deol brothers’ Poster Boys released on September 8, Sunny will launch his older son Karan in Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas. It’ll be directed by Sunny. After Poster Boys, Sunny and Bobby will be seen in their home production Yamla Pagla Deewana 3.