Tuesday, March 19, 2024

News Destination For The Global Indian Community

News Destination For The Global Indian Community

FILM & MUSIC
LifeMag
Abhay Deol Engaging Himself in Ethical Advertising

Abhay Deol Engaging Himself in Ethical Advertising

The reporter Kritika Dua says, Abhay deol is no more interesting in signing formula films and want to engage himself in ethical advertising. He will make sure that women characters will be empowered in his films.

The non-conformist Abhay Deol has created a niche for himself in the film fraternity by making certain choices and opting for unconventional projects. Known as someone who never shies away from speaking his mind, his films have been quite a quirky mix, his latest Nanu Ki Jaanu being a horror comedy. But only the “thinking” Deol can be blasé about it and even justify the legitimacy of the oddball theme. “I do the kind of films I believe in and those which go away from formula. These films are written very rarely and their stories need to be told. If I had gone down the formula road, you would have seen a lot more work from me. But  because of the choices I have made, it can go only as fast as people producing different content,” he told us.

Nanu Ki Jaanu revolves around a Delhi land mafia agent (essayed by Abhay Deol) who tries to deal with the arrival of a cleanliness-freak ghost (essayed by Patralekha Paul) in his apartment. Directed by Faraz Haider, the film also features Rajesh Sharma and Manu Rishi Chadha. Abhay said that he will be seen as  the perfect Dilli ka launda, a return to his Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! days. “My Hindi has a touch of Punjabi in it which proved to be an advantage because of my origins. But the twist is that though Naanu has a good background, he is still a criminal. The dichotomy dictates the person’s body language, the way of talking and you work among these things to get it right. Manu Rishi is good to train with, he is not just a fabulous writer and actor but he’s a great teacher in many ways. We (me and Manu) have done workshops before for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and we brushed up on that same thing this time.”

Of late, Abhay is known for his stance on issues like his recent slam of Bollywood endorsements for fairness products. He also steers clear of endorsing alcohol, cigarettes or anything else that spreads a wrong message in the society. Said he, “I don’t have any problem with endorsing an alcohol brand which  invests in a responsible drinking campaign. You will never see me in an advertisement promoting cigarette-smoking and fairness creams. I will not endorse soft drinks. My stand on fairness creams through a Facebook post was an outburst. Now I feel that if an outburst or a confrontation doesn’t give you a result, then you have to find a new track.  A lot of times when a celebrity picks up an issue, the issue is forgotten and the star becomes the issue. Sometimes their words are misinterpreted and taken out of context. So, if you genuinely want to make a change, you should do it behind the scenes.” Which is why he has slipped into the active citizen mode.

He doesn’t want to be judged the wrong way. “There are people out there who do things for publicity and we all know that. I hate publicity and don’t put myself in the papers.”

All the women characters in his films are empowered. When he did Dev D, Chanda was shown as weak as Dev, which is why they connected but Paro was not weak. She loved Dev but she would not take bullshit from him. Abhay tries to do such movies with a subliminal message at times but that is not his primary objective. “If you watch a movie with strong female characters, you will walk out feeling a certain way. I focus on this aspect, hoping it will   raise the consciousness of people a little bit or have them appreciate things which are under-appreciated.”

On sexism in Bollywood, he said, “Sexism exists not only in our industry but also around the world. The position of women is below men. Scandinavian countries have taken huge strides in gender equality, so maybe we can start looking at other countries who have tackled this issue and had success with it. As far as sexism in our industry is concerned, we are not isolated from our culture. And the people inhabiting this industry come from the same culture. So it’s not something that will go immediately. Neither has feudalism or chauvinism been created by the industry but is being carried forward by them. What can be done is to stop feeding the beast. The more substantial roles women get, the more they will not be seen as objects but as individuals who work, think, are intelligent and dynamic. More likely people’s attitude will change and that will come back into the industry to stop sexism.”

Writer: Kritika Dua

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Abhay Deol Engaging Himself in Ethical Advertising

Abhay Deol Engaging Himself in Ethical Advertising

The reporter Kritika Dua says, Abhay deol is no more interesting in signing formula films and want to engage himself in ethical advertising. He will make sure that women characters will be empowered in his films.

The non-conformist Abhay Deol has created a niche for himself in the film fraternity by making certain choices and opting for unconventional projects. Known as someone who never shies away from speaking his mind, his films have been quite a quirky mix, his latest Nanu Ki Jaanu being a horror comedy. But only the “thinking” Deol can be blasé about it and even justify the legitimacy of the oddball theme. “I do the kind of films I believe in and those which go away from formula. These films are written very rarely and their stories need to be told. If I had gone down the formula road, you would have seen a lot more work from me. But  because of the choices I have made, it can go only as fast as people producing different content,” he told us.

Nanu Ki Jaanu revolves around a Delhi land mafia agent (essayed by Abhay Deol) who tries to deal with the arrival of a cleanliness-freak ghost (essayed by Patralekha Paul) in his apartment. Directed by Faraz Haider, the film also features Rajesh Sharma and Manu Rishi Chadha. Abhay said that he will be seen as  the perfect Dilli ka launda, a return to his Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! days. “My Hindi has a touch of Punjabi in it which proved to be an advantage because of my origins. But the twist is that though Naanu has a good background, he is still a criminal. The dichotomy dictates the person’s body language, the way of talking and you work among these things to get it right. Manu Rishi is good to train with, he is not just a fabulous writer and actor but he’s a great teacher in many ways. We (me and Manu) have done workshops before for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and we brushed up on that same thing this time.”

Of late, Abhay is known for his stance on issues like his recent slam of Bollywood endorsements for fairness products. He also steers clear of endorsing alcohol, cigarettes or anything else that spreads a wrong message in the society. Said he, “I don’t have any problem with endorsing an alcohol brand which  invests in a responsible drinking campaign. You will never see me in an advertisement promoting cigarette-smoking and fairness creams. I will not endorse soft drinks. My stand on fairness creams through a Facebook post was an outburst. Now I feel that if an outburst or a confrontation doesn’t give you a result, then you have to find a new track.  A lot of times when a celebrity picks up an issue, the issue is forgotten and the star becomes the issue. Sometimes their words are misinterpreted and taken out of context. So, if you genuinely want to make a change, you should do it behind the scenes.” Which is why he has slipped into the active citizen mode.

He doesn’t want to be judged the wrong way. “There are people out there who do things for publicity and we all know that. I hate publicity and don’t put myself in the papers.”

All the women characters in his films are empowered. When he did Dev D, Chanda was shown as weak as Dev, which is why they connected but Paro was not weak. She loved Dev but she would not take bullshit from him. Abhay tries to do such movies with a subliminal message at times but that is not his primary objective. “If you watch a movie with strong female characters, you will walk out feeling a certain way. I focus on this aspect, hoping it will   raise the consciousness of people a little bit or have them appreciate things which are under-appreciated.”

On sexism in Bollywood, he said, “Sexism exists not only in our industry but also around the world. The position of women is below men. Scandinavian countries have taken huge strides in gender equality, so maybe we can start looking at other countries who have tackled this issue and had success with it. As far as sexism in our industry is concerned, we are not isolated from our culture. And the people inhabiting this industry come from the same culture. So it’s not something that will go immediately. Neither has feudalism or chauvinism been created by the industry but is being carried forward by them. What can be done is to stop feeding the beast. The more substantial roles women get, the more they will not be seen as objects but as individuals who work, think, are intelligent and dynamic. More likely people’s attitude will change and that will come back into the industry to stop sexism.”

Writer: Kritika Dua

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Leave a comment

Comments (0)

Related Articles

Opinion Express TV

Shapoorji Pallonji

SUNGROW

GOVNEXT INDIA FOUNDATION

CAMBIUM NETWORKS TECHNOLOGY

Opinion Express Magazine