Gulshan Grover: Shatrughan Sinha felt I should've been Rehman Dakait in Dhurandhar
Gulshan Grover, in an interview with India Today, reflected on the changes in portraying crime in films and the evolution of villains in Hindi cinema.
In a conversation with India Today, actor Gulshan Grover, who is promoting his upcoming series Matka King, opened up about the evolution of crime storytelling in Hindi cinema and whether he misses the era of larger-than-life, unapologetic villains.
Speaking about how crime storytelling has changed over the years, Grover said that evolution is inevitable across all aspects of life, and cinema is no exception. "See, the thing is, evolution and change are happening everywhere. It’s happening at your home, it’s happening outside, everywhere. Changes are happening at your workplace, whether it’s storytelling, directing, acting, everything is bound to change," he said.
The actor emphasised that adapting to change is essential: "I have this one understanding: people who don’t go with the change, could be dressed very modern, but their vision is still old. You see some old men sitting under a tree, having a hookah and saying, 'humare zamaane mein toh (in our times)', I don’t belong to that. I don’t subscribe to that. You have to continuously change, like everything else."
At the same time, Grover highlighted how trends from the past often find their way back into the present. "We are wearing bell-bottoms these days — it’s all coming back. So many wonderful songs are coming back as remakes. Performances are coming back," he said.
Recalling a recent interaction, the actor shared an anecdote involving veteran stars. "Two days back, Shatrughan Sinha was there, who has played anti-hero, strong, powerful characters, Rakesh Roshan, Shashi Ranjan — we were having dinner. So, I walked in late, and he (Sinha) said, 'I saw Dhurandhar. Gulshan Grover, that was a film in which you should have been there'," Grover said.
He further revealed: "He (Sinha) even said how wonderful it would have been if I had played Rehman Dakait, Akshaye Khanna’s role. So, I said, even I agree with that. The public also agrees."
"I am giving this reference of how many of those era-looking characters are back. Even some of the settings, the drums, and all that used to be in every movie, are back. It was the time, and it was showing no progress," the actor added.
Addressing the absence of classic, fear-inducing villains, Grover said it reflects societal change rather than a creative gap. "I think there is no problem that those kinds of khalnayak (antagonist), unapologetic villains, have gone away—they will come back. Because in society, the filmmaker writes what’s happening in society. They draw inspiration from there," he said.
The actor emphasised that such characters feel less visible today because real-life parallels are rarer: "Never anywhere would you see somebody walk into a restaurant and people leave that place, or someone gets out of a car with a cigarette in hand, and people run away. Those kinds of people are not here anymore; hence, we don’t see them in films."
However, Grover believes the essence of dark, layered storytelling still exists.
He said, "Like Matka King. It is about a certain time, a certain kind of illegal world, something dangerous, something negative, flawed — it gives you that feeling. It’s very interesting. It’s something that I want to watch, definitely."
"When you have filmmakers like Siddharth Roy Kapur and his associates, a director like Nagraj Manjule, and actors like these, it's a wonderful combination. We were talking about music also. Somebody pointed out how that title track was done, how the mix of certain instruments was used. So it is, in a way, coming back, differently, for those whose taste buds want to experience that time, that kind of crime is there," the actor added.
He concluded, "So, I think everything is coming back, but in a different form."
In a conversation with India Today, actor Gulshan Grover, who is promoting his upcoming series Matka King, opened up about the evolution of crime storytelling in Hindi cinema and whether he misses the era of larger-than-life, unapologetic villains.
Speaking about how crime storytelling has changed over the years, Grover said that evolution is inevitable across all aspects of life, and cinema is no exception. "See, the thing is, evolution and change are happening everywhere. It’s happening at your home, it’s happening outside, everywhere. Changes are happening at your workplace, whether it’s storytelling, directing, acting, everything is bound to change," he said.
The actor emphasised that adapting to change is essential: "I have this one understanding: people who don’t go with the change, could be dressed very modern, but their vision is still old. You see some old men sitting under a tree, having a hookah and saying, 'humare zamaane mein toh (in our times)', I don’t belong to that. I don’t subscribe to that. You have to continuously change, like everything else."
At the same time, Grover highlighted how trends from the past often find their way back into the present. "We are wearing bell-bottoms these days — it’s all coming back. So many wonderful songs are coming back as remakes. Performances are coming back," he said.
Recalling a recent interaction, the actor shared an anecdote involving veteran stars. "Two days back, Shatrughan Sinha was there, who has played anti-hero, strong, powerful characters, Rakesh Roshan, Shashi Ranjan — we were having dinner. So, I walked in late, and he (Sinha) said, 'I saw Dhurandhar. Gulshan Grover, that was a film in which you should have been there'," Grover said.
He further revealed: "He (Sinha) even said how wonderful it would have been if I had played Rehman Dakait, Akshaye Khanna’s role. So, I said, even I agree with that. The public also agrees."
"I am giving this reference of how many of those era-looking characters are back. Even some of the settings, the drums, and all that used to be in every movie, are back. It was the time, and it was showing no progress," the actor added.
Addressing the absence of classic, fear-inducing villains, Grover said it reflects societal change rather than a creative gap. "I think there is no problem that those kinds of khalnayak (antagonist), unapologetic villains, have gone away—they will come back. Because in society, the filmmaker writes what’s happening in society. They draw inspiration from there," he said.
The actor emphasised that such characters feel less visible today because real-life parallels are rarer: "Never anywhere would you see somebody walk into a restaurant and people leave that place, or someone gets out of a car with a cigarette in hand, and people run away. Those kinds of people are not here anymore; hence, we don’t see them in films."
However, Grover believes the essence of dark, layered storytelling still exists.
He said, "Like Matka King. It is about a certain time, a certain kind of illegal world, something dangerous, something negative, flawed — it gives you that feeling. It’s very interesting. It’s something that I want to watch, definitely."
"When you have filmmakers like Siddharth Roy Kapur and his associates, a director like Nagraj Manjule, and actors like these, it's a wonderful combination. We were talking about music also. Somebody pointed out how that title track was done, how the mix of certain instruments was used. So it is, in a way, coming back, differently, for those whose taste buds want to experience that time, that kind of crime is there," the actor added.
He concluded, "So, I think everything is coming back, but in a different form."
