His debut film Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas has just been released and he is waiting to hear what the audience has to say. At 28, it is decidedly a late entry into Bollywood. But Karan took his time, slowly honing his skills before agreeing to be launched by his father, Sunny Deol. “I come from a filmy family so I know that criticism is a part and parcel of our lives. I am prepared for it. Every film cannot do well, but we have to keep going. Playing the protagonist is not important. The script should excite you,” he says.
Karan says his parents have been instrumental in grooming him towards carrying a positive frame of mind. “My father’s advice has always been that if a film does not do well, rather than sit and mull over it, you have to gear up for your next. Don’t consider it an end to your career. This is just the beginning. I hope people will see my work and appreciate the effort I put in. Also, my grandfather (Dharmendra) told me that acting is all about reacting and one shouldn’t complicate it too much. You have to reciprocate,” he says.
The young Deol stresses that working under his father Sunny Deol certainly has not been a cakewalk. With his penchant for being a perfectionist, Sunny was strict with his son and would pull him up often. His first shot, confesses Karan, was a disaster. “It was frightening as we were shooting in the Himalayas and the terrain was difficult. I was driving a pick-up truck. It has different mechanisms and I was supposed to stop at a certain point, roll down the window and speak my lines. But I just couldn’t do it. It upset me so much that I started crying. My family friend Raman, who was assisting on the sets, calmed me down and asked me to try again,” he says. Maybe the fact that he is so emotional makes him dabble in poetry. “I have been writing poems since my school days. I write when I feel low. It’s an easy outlet for me,” he says shyly.
Rumours are abuzz that certain portions of the film were reshot by Sunny recently, just before the release. Karan clarifies, “Earlier we had time constraints and some of these scenes were not up to the mark. Papa didn’t want to leave any stone unturned. There were a few mistakes that we had overlooked. Hence the need for reshooting.”
Coming back to his relationship with his grandfather and his father, Karan says he was lucky to have his grandfather around him while growing up. As a young Karan played video games, Dharmendra would regale the wide-eyed boy with stories of how he came to Mumbai and initially struggled to find a foothold. “Had he not followed his dreams, he wouldn’t have been an actor. He would still be farming somewhere. While my grandfather overlooked our mistakes, Papa was strict. But he inculcated discipline in us.”
Will he do a biopic on his grandfather someday? “I don’t think I can do justice to the character. His life is colourful and different and there were a lot of ups and downs. I don’t think anyone can do justice to it.” His father was a popular and critically acclaimed actor before turning director. Will he too follow in the footsteps? “I am not ready yet. Maybe 15 years from now I would be confident to take up direction.”
The Deols have been infamous for having two left feet when it comes to dancing. What about him? “Unlike earlier, one needs overall training these days. I have been trained in dance under Ganesh Acharya and Boso-Ceaser. I hope it has helped,” he smiles. What about doing action films like the Deols before him? “No one is doing raw action these days like Salman Khan, Suniel Shetty, Sanjay Dutt and my dad used to do,” he rues.