Dulquer Salmaan: Bollywood not a full-time goal

File image of Dulquer Salmaan. Image sourced from mid-day archives

His entry into Bollywood with Karwaan, which he followed up with The Zoya Factor, has been well-received, but Malayalam star Dulquer Salmaan says he does not aim to move to Hindi cinema as south film industry will always be his priority.

The actor, son of veteran star Mammootty, said he won't give up on his years of hard work in south to become a pan-India star.

"It is not that the goal is to be here full time and give up on the progress that you have made there. You have worked so many years and have built up a solid base there and it is very difficult to give that up and restart.

"You are in the new market you have to start again and you have to introduce yourself again. It is too tricky. I don't know what lies ahead and what kind of offers will come my way. My biggest base is Malayalam and I can never afford to give up on that," Dulquer told PTI in an interview.

The actor said becoming a star is not on his agenda and he wants to focus on good stories. "I don't think too much about stardom. I don't know if I have ever done films for that. A lot of my films are appreciated later. When I first do it, at that time people question my choice but after its release people say 'Wow, it is amazing'.

"As long as I keep getting interesting offers from other languages I will keep doing it. I don't want to do forgettable films," he added.

The 33-year-old actor, known for films like Ok Kanmani and Bangalore Days, said only good content can push him to say yes to a project regardless of the language. "The content is strong in Malayalam cinema. Irrespective of whatever film I do in whichever language, it should have strong content. I get excited by good stories.

"It would be nice if I annually get to do films in Tamil and Hindi because I enjoy different cultures and languages and each language has its own beauty. Films have to appeal to that particular market to which we are catering to," he said.

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