Bobby Deol grabbed the second chance that life gave him, after he slipped professionally and found himself turning to alcohol for support. The actor has spoken often about his career decline, and how he emerged from it. In a new interview, he credited his wife for sticking with him, at a time when any other woman would’ve left him. He also opened up about the moments when it would strike him that he was no longer the star that he used to be. In an interview with Shubhankar Mishra, Bobby said that he was accustomed to producers approaching him with roles, but the industry began changing at the turn of the millennium, and he couldn’t keep up.
At a time when other stars were beginning to make full use of the PR machinery available to them, Bobby waited for people to approach him like they used to. When his films began doing poorly at the box office, however, he found himself being sidelined. Asked about this period in his life, Bobby said, “This was a slow process. For instance, people would meet me nicely, but they would soon go away and form their own groups, and I would be left alone. The number of invitations I got for parties started to decrease.”
He continued, “It’s not like I would go to a lot of parties anyway. The same people who would be so warm with me (when I was at the top) started ignoring me. But that’s what they say; people are with you as long as you have something to offer. It happened, and it happens in every industry, not just mine. But I don’t hold grudges. The same people come to me now with offers, but I don’t hold anything against them.” Bobby credited his wife for standing by him when he was at his worst, and said that any other woman would’ve left him.
In a recent interview with Raj Shamani, Bobby said that his decline coincided with those of his brother, Sunny Deol, and their father, Dharmendra. It was a particularly disheartening period for the family, and Bobby found himself sinking. “I’m working for my family. And if I see fear and sadness in their eyes… It’s not like I used to drink every day, but whenever I would, they would fear me. They just didn’t know how I would be. It’s horrible. Alcohol is the biggest addiction; it’s more addictive than actual drugs. It messes with your brains like narcotics,” he said.
Bobby made a comeback with the film Race 3, after he asked Salman Khan for a helping hand. He later starred in the popular web series Aashram, and then went on to play a memorable role in Animal, which took his career to greater heights. Bobby was most recently seen in Aryan Khan’s directorial debut, The Ba***ds of Bollywood, which debuted on Netflix in September.
