“Everybody thinks I’m a bully”

Brut India

Dalip Tahil often played a villain's role in Hindi films. He told Brut why people think he is a “terrible human being”.

Transcript

00:00People think I'm a terrible human being.

00:04I suppose from the roles I do on the screen,

00:06everybody thinks I'm a control freak and I'm a bully.

00:10Okay, okay. I'm sorry.

00:12This is Dalit Tahil for Brute.

00:18Ever since my school days, I was always performing

00:22in the choir and I was always on stage.

00:25And it became a passion with me.

00:26I really enjoyed doing it.

00:28And from there, it became a profession.

00:31As I got into the films and I got into the theatre.

00:34People are still mad at me for killing Hrithik in Kaho Lo Pyaar.

00:39It wasn't my fault.

00:41I was told to do it.

00:42I was more attracted to sort of roles that had

00:45a little bit of power and dynamism in it.

00:48And I think because of that, I gravitated or I was cast

00:53mainly in the strong roles in a film,

00:55which in Hindi cinema is usually the negative person at that time.

01:00It's the bad guys who have all the heavy stuff to do

01:04because the leading man, the romantic man

01:06is busy singing songs and wooing the woman

01:10while the heavy lifting, as they say, is done by the bad guy.

01:22It gave me the label of a character actor.

01:24So I got to play with several different kinds of characters

01:27from comedy to bad guys to good guys.

01:31It sort of helped me not get that cast.

01:38Actually, it works in my favour because people think I'm a terrible human being

01:43because of what they've seen on screen.

01:45So anything that comes after that is usually a pleasant surprise.

01:48I also wanted to do musical roles.

01:50I wanted to sing my own songs because that's what I was doing on stage.

01:54But I never got that opportunity in films.

01:56I have done different kinds of roles.

01:58But yeah, people remember me for certain roles

02:02that resonated with the audience like Baazigar, Kayamat Se Kayamat Tak.

02:06Kayamat Se Kayamat Tak, I wasn't a villain per se.

02:09I mean, I was a strong and emotional father

02:12who takes revenge because of what happens to his sister.

02:19I didn't even think of my age.

02:20It didn't even occur to me that, oh, I'm 33 years old.

02:24How can I play the father?

02:25Nasir Saab also told me that I wasn't the first choice.

02:29And a few actors who were character actors at the time who were much older than me,

02:35but they refused to play because they didn't want to play so-called father roles.

02:40It was like not good for their image to be seen as a father, whatever that means.

02:46People started putting my name to my face all over India with Buniyat

02:52because it was the beginning of television.

02:56And I was playing a good guy in it.

02:58But nobody sort of remembers that.

03:00And I remember my mother being really happy

03:03because I was playing an upright IAS officer who doesn't take bribes,

03:06who doesn't do anything, was very straight, squeaky clean, as we call it.

03:16Buniyat changed that for me.

03:18Though there are times when you feel that enough of people,

03:22everybody calling you Madan Chopra, but on the other hand,

03:26I have to say that it is very gratifying to be remembered for a character.

03:34About three or four years ago, I was traveling in the lift of my building

03:38and there was a very young girl in the lift with me.

03:41She was in her school uniform.

03:43She said, sir, I really like your work.

03:45You're a wonderful, you're a very good actor.

03:47So I looked at her and I first asked her, I said, so how old are you?

03:51About 12.

03:52She said, no, I'm 13.

03:54Very proudly.

03:55So I said, OK, where have you seen me?

03:58Because I was keen to understand as to what she'd seen of mine.

04:02I see you in Ishq, the movie called Ishq.

04:04And she said that it comes on television and I love it.

04:07It's one of my favorite films and I watch it and I like your work.

04:10The old movies that come on television have helped actors like me

04:15to be recognized and to be connected with the new generation and the new audiences.

04:24I'm very excited about my new Instagram thing because really, this is who I am.

04:30If my daughter has a love marriage, would I be able to handle it?

04:33And I'm father, I do father roles.

04:36In Kahamat Se, Kahamat Tak and everywhere I'm playing father roles.

04:39So it comes from that kind of thing.

04:41When I was in my 20s and 30s, I was playing father roles.

04:44And now that, well, I'm a father, obviously.

04:48Myself, I have a 32 year old son, but I'm connecting with Gen Z.

04:55So that's full circle.

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