When Bobby Deol feared he'd be dropped from 'Animal': 'I waited 1.5 years to shoot the film'

Bobby Deol Pic/Instagram

Bollywood actor Bobby Deol is ecstatic with the appreciation he is getting for his portrayal of a menacing mute antagonist Abrar Haque in the 2023 film ‘Animal', something which he said was not easy and for which he had to learn sign language to make it look authentic. However, in an interview with Humans of Bombay, the actor shared how he feared being dropped from the film after not being called to shoot for over a year.

Bobby Deol felt Sandeep Reddy Vanga would drop him from ‘Animal'

He said, "I waited 1.5 years to shoot the film. The film is 3.5 hours long, so they were shooting with Ranbir for a long time… and during that period, I kept thinking, ‘Are they going to change their mind? Will they suddenly say they don't require me?' Those thoughts crossed my mind, but Sandeep Reddy is a sweetheart. I learned sign language for the role. It was fun and exciting and it became a huge success - although I never imagined it would become a cult hit, I had a gut feeling about it."

Bobby Deol on playing a mute character in ‘Animal'

In an earlier interview with IANS, Bobby said he was stunned when director Sandeep Reddy Vanga told him he had no lines in the film.

"When Sandeep said that your character is mute, I was like ‘What? I am not allowed to speak… I mean everyone likes the way I speak' and he said ‘Yes, but I want this character to be mute' I was like ok," Bobby recounted.

His hard work paid off, quite literally. "I did not want it to look like it was not part of my body language and I was speaking in sign language so it was fun and somewhere it made people notice my work even more because it was challenging," said the son of Bollywood veteran star Dharmendra.

Bobby Deol's upcoming projects

In the coming months, he will be seen in several projects including Alia Bhatt's spy film. Alia portrays a female agent in the film, helmed by YRF's indigenous director Shiv Rawail. This film also stars Sharvari, who is teamed with Alia as a super agent on a mission. Bobby also has Aryan Khan's debut project ‘Stardom'.

He will also be seen locking horns with Suriya in 'Kanguva'. The official synopsis of the Tamil film read, "A story that travels 500 years from the 1700s to 2023 is about a hero who has to fulfill a mission left unfinished." Siruthai Siva has directed the film. Disha Patani, Natarajan Subramaniam, Jagapathi Babu, and Yogi Babu are also part of 'Kanguva'.