Bobby Deol: Knew role would make impact even in 15 mins

Bobby Deol believes that each step in the past few years from Class of 83 2020 to Aashram as he slowly revived his career has led him to this point To Animal In the three days since its release the Ranbir Kapoorled film has polarised audiences and sparked debates At the same time it has enjoyed a huge opening and won Deol praise for his performance as the revengeobsessed mute gangster ldquoI feel like I am dreamingrdquo he beginsFor the acclaim coming his way Deol has only one person to thankmdashdirector Sandeep Reddy Vanga Had he expected that Animal would take the box office by storm In a way he did ldquoFrom the time I met Sandeep and when I shot for it I had a strong gut feeling that this film will be special When the numbers came out it felt surreal Sandeep Reddy Vanga is a oneofakind director From designing that machine gun to the chain I wear in the film itrsquos all himrdquoSandeep Reddy VangaSome actors might think twice before playing such a bloodthirsty man The role with its gore and violence may make one wonder lsquoIs it too muchrsquo But such thoughts didnrsquot bother Deol ldquoI never had any apprehension about the character being violent or dark because I knew who this person was My character in his childhood loses his grandfather who sets himself on fire He chooses a darker path because of what happened with his family he wants to avenge his grandfatherrsquos death We see so many films where the hero takes revenge from the villain So I never thought he was a villain I always thought he was the hero of his familyrdquoOne of the most talked about aspects of Animal is the chemistry between Bobby and Ranbir who play nemesis The actor is not surprised after all he reveals Sandeep envisioned their relationship as a love story In my first meeting with Sandeep he explained to me the whole story of my character He had said I am going to depict your and Ranbirs relationship as a love story And I am going to play a romantic emotional song during the fight scene between you and him He had planned it before and the song he selected was so amazing It was amazing how he had conceived the whole thing already You will see many bare body fight scenes between two people on screen but the kind of animalistic manly feel there is in this scene is rare I love when people say theres romantic chemistry between us I love him as an actor first of all I am a big fan of him and Alia I feel so lucky that I got a chance to work with Ranbir and got to know him He is just amazingrdquo he says adding that he believes Ranbir is deserving of every bit of success that Animal is earningldquoRanbir deserves every bit of this because he is such a lovely person He can be a big star but as a human being he is even bigger He has no arrogance He is just all heart I think it brought out the chemistry between us because we play cousins We also look quite similar in our moments togetherrdquo he smilesMany parts of the movie have been criticisedmdashfrom its gore to its treatment of the female characters who are shown mostly suffering at the hands of its alpha men Whatrsquos his take ldquoPeople take things personally sometimes Wersquove been brought up in a beautiful culture but there are people who treat women badly The women when they see that on screen can identify with it Films are a reflection of our society Itrsquos exaggerated in cinema People feel they are being told a story in an entertaining way Boxoffice figures show people have accepted this filmrdquo he saysAnother complaint that many have is that Deol whose presence was drummed up in the trailer barely has a 15minute role in the action fare The actor says ldquoIrsquove heard people say lsquoWe wanted to watch more of yoursquo I had 15 days with a great director I knew this was a role of a lifetime I knew even if it was 15 minutes my role would make an impact if I do it right And it hasrdquo As the makers tease a sequel Deolrsquos fans are hoping for a standalone film on him He echoes their sentiment saying ldquoI wish Sandeep makes a film based on my characterrdquo