(Image courtesy: New Indian Express)It has become an ‘everything or nothing’ gamble for Gulshan Grover as he battles Bond and rumours of him playing Le Chiffre, the Russian spy, in the latest Bond flick, Casino Royale. The Bad Man of India is so much into method acting that he’s even been practicing Russian roulette to gear himself up for the role. We got a psychic to read his thoughts.
Well, I have no choice but to...
…keep calling myself a bad man
Over the years, the bad guys of Bollywood - from Pran to Amrish Puri, from Amjad Khan to Kader Khan have all turned good and have become 'character actors' (Hence the Indian definition of a bad guy as someone who is a 'characterless person')
…look for roles abroad
Seen the latest villains? Amitabh in Ram Gopal Varma's Sholay. Ajay Devgun in Khakee. Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2. Abhishek Bachchan in Yuva. By God, if the heroes are all turning villains, where do the villains go? The younger generation - Sayaji Shinde, Ashish Vidyarthi and Atul Kulkarni has headed down South to play the baddies in Telugu and Tamil flicks. So I decided to go west.
…accept my role in a Bond film
I was okay with seeing the likes of Kabir Bedi, Vijay Amritraj, Amrish Puri and Om Puri go to Hollywood. But Anupam Kher changed my ‘don’t care’ attitude - I read that he has auditioned for a Woody Allen film. He has been giving me grief for a long time about how his Dr. Dang role in Karma is second only to Dr. No. To me, that’s an absolute no-no.
…accept defeat like an extraordinary gentleman
It is a fact that Naseeruddin Shah beat me to Captain Nemo's role in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. A couple of days later, I received a call from someone asking me to audition for Finding Nemo. Thinking that it was a sequel, I was thrilled. Imagine my trauma when I figured that it was an animation film about some clownfish! Later on, I figured that it was a crank call. If I find out who that was, by God, I’ll feed him to the sharks!
…refuse my role in a Bond film
Obviously I was miffed when they refused to name the movie after me and instead decided to name it Casino Royale – sounds like a paint! If Dr. No and Goldfinger can be named after villains, why not call this one ‘Bad Man Grover’ or something like that? I can even have an opening dialogue like “Main hoon BMG mere yaar! Aur yeh hai BMW, mera car.” Forget the BMW, they aren’t even giving me a chance to be a cultural ambassador.
…speak to Prince Charles about this
With a film like Casino Royale, who better to speak to than someone who is royalty? But all he could promise was a walk-in role as a dabba wala. By God, I’m a bad man, I can only have others for lunch. Frankly, I wanted to give this Bond film an Indian flavour, but I really can’t think of myself as the man with the golden dabba.
But these are just rumours. And as rumours go, even Dame Judi Dench has been put on the bench, according to sources. So, beware - I may be shaken, but I haven’t yet stirred - from the audition queue.
(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 27 November, 2005)
Well, I have no choice but to...
…keep calling myself a bad man
Over the years, the bad guys of Bollywood - from Pran to Amrish Puri, from Amjad Khan to Kader Khan have all turned good and have become 'character actors' (Hence the Indian definition of a bad guy as someone who is a 'characterless person')
…look for roles abroad
Seen the latest villains? Amitabh in Ram Gopal Varma's Sholay. Ajay Devgun in Khakee. Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2. Abhishek Bachchan in Yuva. By God, if the heroes are all turning villains, where do the villains go? The younger generation - Sayaji Shinde, Ashish Vidyarthi and Atul Kulkarni has headed down South to play the baddies in Telugu and Tamil flicks. So I decided to go west.
…accept my role in a Bond film
I was okay with seeing the likes of Kabir Bedi, Vijay Amritraj, Amrish Puri and Om Puri go to Hollywood. But Anupam Kher changed my ‘don’t care’ attitude - I read that he has auditioned for a Woody Allen film. He has been giving me grief for a long time about how his Dr. Dang role in Karma is second only to Dr. No. To me, that’s an absolute no-no.
…accept defeat like an extraordinary gentleman
It is a fact that Naseeruddin Shah beat me to Captain Nemo's role in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. A couple of days later, I received a call from someone asking me to audition for Finding Nemo. Thinking that it was a sequel, I was thrilled. Imagine my trauma when I figured that it was an animation film about some clownfish! Later on, I figured that it was a crank call. If I find out who that was, by God, I’ll feed him to the sharks!
…refuse my role in a Bond film
Obviously I was miffed when they refused to name the movie after me and instead decided to name it Casino Royale – sounds like a paint! If Dr. No and Goldfinger can be named after villains, why not call this one ‘Bad Man Grover’ or something like that? I can even have an opening dialogue like “Main hoon BMG mere yaar! Aur yeh hai BMW, mera car.” Forget the BMW, they aren’t even giving me a chance to be a cultural ambassador.
…speak to Prince Charles about this
With a film like Casino Royale, who better to speak to than someone who is royalty? But all he could promise was a walk-in role as a dabba wala. By God, I’m a bad man, I can only have others for lunch. Frankly, I wanted to give this Bond film an Indian flavour, but I really can’t think of myself as the man with the golden dabba.
But these are just rumours. And as rumours go, even Dame Judi Dench has been put on the bench, according to sources. So, beware - I may be shaken, but I haven’t yet stirred - from the audition queue.
(Appeared in the New Indian Express Sunday Supplement on 27 November, 2005)
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