Exclusive| Suniel Shetty interview: My children have grown up. I’m now playing my age

Suniel Shetty is back and how! After entertaining the audiences with some iconic roles in action, romance and comedy genres, Bollywood star Suniel Shetty made his impending OTT debut with 2022 web show ‘Dharavi Bank’ as Thalaivan, the kingpin of one of the world’s largest slums, Dharavi. In an exclusive conversation with WION, Bollywood’s ‘Anna’ Suniel Shetty spoke about his comeback after taking a break from films, conscious decision of playing roles that suit his age and love for grey shaded characters that have a soul of their own.

Here are the edited excerpts from the conversation:

WION: You finally made your OTT debut in 2022 with Dharavi Bank. The show also serves as a comeback for you.How was the experience? Do you feel any difference working for a web show vs a film?

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Suniel Shetty: It was a very important thing for me. I was very excited about what I was doing. I was scared of the platform as a lot more people get to see it and you’re exposed to a lot many things (as a performer). At the same time, it’s exciting as an actor since a web show is more layered. It’s a great opportunity to showcase your talent and how much you have within you. There’s also lots of healthy, solid competition. I honestly believe that OTT has brought out some extraordinary actors onto the field. The competition is healthy and you’re competing with actors who are par excellence. That was Dharavi for me.

If Dharavi is being appreciated, it's purely because of the talent behind it. Every scene has somebody who is more interesting than the earlier one. This is why audiences stay hooked on an OTT show. This is why they binge watch a show because they can't leave it midway. Anyway I'm coming back after a long time, so this meant a lot.

WION: OTT content has started taking lion’s share in the entertainment business today. How do you feel about this change in the consumption pattern since you come from the original theatre-going loving audience? Will theatres survive this?

Suniel Shetty: Big screen is always big screen. It's the father of entertainment. Unfortunately what happened was, all the content we see now, had been designed and planned pre-pandemic. As the pandemic hit, people didn't know what to do so they wrapped up their films the way they could and got it ready. They released it on the best medium that was available to them, that was the OTTs. And then things opened up. We can’t blame content creators and producers for having created content that is sometimes irrelevant to the audiences. They saw a new audience, they started creating content according to the market of OTT which is not necessarily the same market of theatres. 70 per cent of our audiences is still mass and they want mass entertainment whereas OTT, because of the medium’s layering, is also very smart entertainment. There is a definite distinction between what you have to create for an OTT and what you have to create for cinema.

Hopefully we will now go back to the drawing board, and make sure that we start creating content for theatre-going audiences which the South (cinema) has continued to do. South has continued to deliver great, technically brilliant films with the same audience in mind.

We saw this failure (of theatres) during the video boom too when everyone said that cinema will finish as the video has come in. At the time, I had entered the industry as a young actor. With video coming in we had more opportunities but the mass audience continued to venture out to watch films in theatre. Video boom didn't kill cinema. We survived that. So today instead of video we have OTTs. It’s important to note that the boom in content you saw during the pandemic on OTT is not the same. They are also very selective about what they buy. During the pandemic, OTT became Television Plus. Creators stopped designing specifically for OTT also. All mediums are different – TV, OTT, Cinema. I think we will survive, we will co exist. Best part of the OTT boom has been that talent from all over the country and otherwise also are getting an opportunity. There’s healthy competition which means better products need to be designed, people need to take their craft seriously. Lot of people believe that we have been here for a long time so we will be cast but now anyone can be cast instead of you. Good content will always work. It’s important to understand the platform. Mass rejection is happening because we forgot that but some films are working.Avatar is working, Drishyam has worked.

WION: From Anna to Thalaivan, this has been a momentous journey for you in the last 30 years as an actor. If you were to look back at your career graph, what do you think were the high points for you or game changers?

Suniel Shetty: Action is what gave me audiences' love. It gave me an opportunity to work in far more films than I believed I would be able to. Last 30 years in the industry was purely because of my action image. That gave me an opportunity to do comedy. I may not have 100 super hit films but I am someone who has tried every genre – be it action, romance, people still talk about Dhadkan, you talk about patriotic film, there’s Border, you talk about comedy, there is Hera Pheri. Somewhere down the line you know as an actor that you have made an attempt to do things that are different. I failed at times when I tried to do things differently because the audience wanted to see you with a particular image. But I still survived all that. Then came a time when I started choosing wrong. I made mistakes. I lost that stardom because of that. I lost that box office hold that I had. When that happens to you, trash started coming. That's when I decided that it’s better to not do anything than do trash. Personal reasons and trash kept me away from the industry for a good 7-8 years.

Now that I am back, good work is coming to me. Not excited about all this. I am happy but cautious. Instead of 10, I might do 2. There are also other things in life. My children have grown up. I am choosing my projects wisely hopefully. I’m playing my age, stuff that will suit me. That’s a very conscious decision. All these years that I was away, I saw a lot of content as an audience and sometimes I felt like why do these guys still continue to want to do this? It doesn't suit them. So I’m sure people judge me in the same way. I asked Athiya, Mana, Ahan, do you think that it will work? Athiya is brutally honest. Ahan might still say ‘Papa you’ve still got it….it will work’… but Athiya says ‘No dad!’ Are you crazy? Don't even attempt it’. So I got that reality check at home. I started choosing stuff. When Dharavi came to me, I chose Thalaivan.

WION: You have a certain affinity towards bad guy characters, those that have a shade of grey? Why always the bad guy?

Suniel Shetty: At the end of the day, what matters to me is the takeaway. I was grey in Dhadkan because I wanted the girl at any cost but did I want her because she didnt love me? No, I wanted her because she loved me and I believed she loved me and her father was against it. When you sympathise with the character, that is what results in mass connect, that's what the mass wants to see. That is what Hindi cinema audiences want. Thalaivan works because he says ‘mere family ko koi touch nahi karega’ and that love for the family is what the Indian audiences connect with. In Main Hoon Na, I am an army man and there is no one more correct than an army man. I take on the Pakistanis because all I asked was for my son’s body and they were not giving it to me. After that, I got a hundred offers to play a negative man but I didn't. It’s the same for me even now. If the hero gets 70 per cent credit, I should get 30 per cent.

Same has happened with Thalaivan. Cops have started stopping me on the roads and are telling me that they liked my role in the show. That is what is missing with scripts today. We have given the world some incredible films. We have got the world dancing in their films, have taught them to be happy…then why is the disconnect there? Older films are releasing now with new packaging. That content was created for a different era. A test player can never play in T20. (Same principle) applies to everything.

WION: Your Instagram bio reads “Sportsman at Heart, Actor by Art, Humanitarian by Virtue, Businessman by Default”. Which identity do you identify with the most and why?

Suniel Shetty: Always the actor. That taught me everything.That gave me identification. Being an actor has given me an opportunity to be an entrepreneur. People listen to me because I'm an actor. I was never a super successful businessman. I had done well, had a good foundation. Actor ka tag gives you the tag of being a good person also. I know kids who are helping people even though they have no money. They are feeding stray animals. But when we do it, people go gaga. I better appreciate the fact that being an actor has given me this good human being tag for doing the simplest of things. I will always be indebted. I am blessed to be in this profession.