After making an impressive comeback to Bollywood and playing a range of characters since then, Chunky Panday has finally cemented his realm in the entertainment industry once again. Known for his comedy films, Panday shifted gears and tried his hands on negative characters in films like 'Begum Jaan', 'Prassthanam', 'Saaho' and 'Abhay' (web series) which earned him a lot of accolades. The actor who has worked in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu films, is all set to make his debut into Gujarati cinema with the release of Nitin G's 'Nayika Devi-The Warrior Queen'. The film is a historical drama set in the 12th century and is about India's first female warrior.
In a free-wheeling conversation with ETimes, Chunky shared some insights about his character, the film, doing negative roles and his views on one India, one industry. Excerpts:
After 'Saaho', you will be seen as Muhammad Ghori. What made you take up this role?
This story happened 1000 years ago and history is a very distinct thing. Nobody knows what happened so many years ago. Hence the director and the producer did a lot of research. But this fellow - Muhammad Ghori, was a very interesting character. He was the first foreigner to rule over India. Of course all these things history says, as people who invaded India before looted and went back. But whatever Muhammad Ghori conquered, he would give it to his slaves and they would rule. He didn't have children and had this cannibalistic tendencies (chuckles). But again there is no proof of what happened 1000 years ago, but we tried to tell a nice story.
Did you land the role during the pandemic?
This role was offered to me during the pandemic and I always wanted to play something from the past and when the makers came and narrated Muhammad Ghori's character, I just freaked out. I had heard about Muhammad Ghori and his battle with Prithviraj Chauhan but there was not too much about Nayika Devi's story in the history, so there was too much research for this film.
Times have changed in cinema and these days negative characters too get their dues and are equally appreciated as the lead characters. What are your views as you are playing a negative character in a period film for the first time?
We all have a devil in our hearts somewhere and that little devil roots for the villain sometime. And again it all depends on how much the director loves his villain. To hate the villain, one needs to love him first. After all, it is only love that turns into hate. I was lucky that I got to play Kabir in 'Begum Jaan', also in 'Saaho' I played a negative role and now in this period film. I am very excited about this character as I never played a historic character before. As said earlier, the last periodic character I played was Akhri Pasta in 'Housefull 4' which was a comedy. So this is for the first time I am playing a periodic role. Initially I was worried to take up this role as it might turn into a controversy owing to how things trend these days. But after all, people need to understand as we make films and not documentaries and we need to be forgiven for that. I just hope people enjoy my character as they enjoyed my other characters.
You have played diverse negative roles in your career. Which negative character was simpler to portray?
I think we have more liberty playing historical negative characters as there is no one to say that this particular character was like that.
What was your reaction when you saw yourself on screen as Muhammad Ghori?
I got scared to see the character and how close I got to this character. I did many action sequences, rode a horse. It's been a very long time since I fought with some weapons and I had become a mini Tiger Shroff and did a lot of stunts. I really enjoyed doing this movie. Though this movie is Gujarati, Ghori was not Gujarati, so all my lines are in Urdu. So there was no difficulty for me. But I love Gujarati language and their humour is mind blowing. We used to discuss Gujarati cinema a lot with Kiran Kumar during the filming of 'Tezaab'. I worked in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati. Now I hope Punjabis call me and also Kannada and Malayalam are remaining.
Pan-India films have blurred the boundaries of language. Your thoughts?
Yes, people keep saying stuff about films but they should realise that people are enjoying films and should forget about which language the films are. Whatever works, we should applaud it. It is nice to see that people are back in theatres. I, myself have been to the theatre 6 times this year and saw movies as theatres are forever and nothing can take their magic away. I went to see 'KGF 2' in its third week of release and saw people enjoying and clapping during the film. All I will say is 'long live cinema'.
One India, one industry...
We are one industry. At least in my mind it is one industry as after all it's cinema and we are a fraternity and its brotherhood. Wherever we are formed, we are brothers. It's a nation which has so many languages, culture and we should be proud of that. Which other nation has such a culture? We should be proud of everything we have. That's what I feel. I keep working everywhere and applaud whatever works. The cinema has taught me 'strong brotherhood' and this is how society should be, very close. Also, the pandemic has brought people closer. They have started knowing and caring for each other more.
