Gulshan Devaiah has played some of the most memorable villains on screen, from the destructive Kulasekhara in Rishab Shetty’s Kantara : Chapter 1 to the brutal Four-Cut Atmaram in Raj and DK’s web series Guns & Gulaabs. Lately, however, the actor has also been exploring family entertainers and lighter stories. He wants his filmography to reflect his own tastes as a moviegoer, allowing him to explore different genres rather than be defined by a single role.
In an exclusive conversation with Hindustan Times, Gulshan says the shift was a conscious adjustment rather than part of a master plan.
A film doesn’t need to make ₹ 500 or ₹ 1000 crores to be a success; the return on investment ratio matters. Also, if a film like 12th Fail can become the most successful film of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s career of 35 years, so anything can happen. Because 10- or 12-year-olds won’t go to the cinema on their own, when we say a ‘kids film’, it is usually a family film,. Because nobody really knows what works, one shouldn’t pay too much attention to these things.
His upcoming film, Little Thomas , is a film about a curious boy who desperately wants a younger brother. At a time when big-screen conversations are often dominated by violent, high-octane entertainers, the film offers a different kind of story for families to watch together. Gulshan, however, believes that films across genres have always coexisted and that the industry’s apparent shift towards hyper-masculine violence may not tell the whole story. Excerpt: In Indian cinema, Taare Zameen Par stands out. I also remember Mani Ratnam’s Anjali. That film had a huge impact on me — it was about an adorable child who dies and makes us all sad. I think so. But I think all kinds of films have always coexisted. Currently, there is a lot of diversity in what audiences get to watch. It is just that these mass entertainers, which draw large crowds, are popular for obvious reasons. They are fun. Violence can also be fun. Great directors have used it as a medium, and it can be a lot of fun, but the business aspect of these films gets highlighted so much — they make enormous amounts of money — that it creates an illusion that the entire industry is shifting in one direction. But that’s just an illusion. India has immense socioeconomic diversity, so different types of films that appeal to different audiences can coexist. Like, until Hanuman Ansh started making so much money, I didn’t even know it was in cinemas.
Like in the 1970s and 1980s, Amitabh Bachchan’s “angry young man” was popular with the masses, while Amol Palekar’s “average young man” thrived with the middle class — both coexisted and thrived. Hyper-masculine violence is a trend today, just as it was in the 70s and 80s, but other stories continue to thrive alongside it.
