Dulquer Salmaan on doing Hindi films ‘sporadically’: ‘Every outing should be memorable’
Dulquer Salmaan, an actor who works across many languages and has appeared in Hindi films only “sporadically”, on Monday said he wants “every outing” to be memorable. Known down South for delivering many hits in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu languages, the actor has so far worked in only two Hindi movies — Karwaan (2018) and The Zoya Factor (2019).
His latest Hindi film, Chup: Revenge of the Art, directed filmmaker R Balki, is set to be released in theatres on Friday.
As an arte, Salmaan said, he is open to doing projects across languages. “I’ve grown up watching Hindi cinema and I love the industry. But I want to keep doing unique films and different roles. Because I work in so many languages, I believe every outing should be memorable.
“I come a little sporadically and there is always a gap. Whenever I do a film in Hindi, I hope it is memorable for the audiences. I hope it is a film and a role that they take back home. And I stay in their minds, at least as a good actor,” the 36-year-old actor told reporters. Salmaan was speaking at a press conference here along with Balki.
Also starring Sunny Deol, Shreya Dhanwanthary and Pooja Bhatt, Chup presents the story of a serial killer who targets film critics. Salmaan said the decision to do Chup was a “no-brainer” for him as it had an interesting script and also gave him a chance to collaborate with Balki, the man behind acclaimed movies such as Cheeni Kum, Paa and Pad Man.
“Even though I len to so many films across languages, Chup stood out from all of them. From all the things that I have read about the film’s trailer, everybody feels it is a unique film. Even my friends and directors in Malayalam say this is such a terrific idea. Nobody thought of this.
“This is what I loved about the script. Also, working with Balki sir is a dream come true. It is not something that I imagined happening. The script being so interesting was a double bonus for me,” he added.
The movie’s trailer, which came out earlier this month, showed Deol as a cop racing against time to unmask a serial murderer on the loose who targets film critics.
He is referred to as “the critic of critics”, someone who carves bloody ‘stars’ as ratings on the foreheads of the victims. Salmaan said bad reviews of movies does affect him, especially when he has put in “sincere and honest” efforts in a film.
“You genuinely want to do good work and prove to the audience that you have put your heart into this film and character. There is often criticism, but a lot of times, it is constructive. Sometimes it is personal, but I feel like those people have their agenda or something. “But there are days when it’s helpful and then there are days when it affects you,” he added.
Moving forward is the only way to deal with criticism, the actor said. “I think the best way to keep them quiet is to just keep working hard. Take new movies and new roles that you do will hopefully keep impressing a different set of people,” Salmaan added.
Chup: Revenge of the Art is produced Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Anil Naidu, Dr. Jayantilal Gada (PEN Studios) and Gauri Shinde. The screenplay and dialogues are co-written Balki, critic-turned-writer Raja Sen and Rishi Virmani. Vishal Sinha is credited as director of photography on the project.
