Gulshan Devaiah: ‘Realised Irrfan’s Work Meant More to Me Than I Knew'

Gulshan Devaiah talks about his work like 'Dahaad', 'Ghost Stories', and 'Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota'.

Gulshan Devaiah talks about Dahaad, Ghost Stories, Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota, and more. 

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

Actor Gulshan Devaiah sat down with The Quint to talk about his acting process, his favourite actors, working with Sonakshi Sinha in Dahaad, working with prosthetics in Ghost Stories, and more. Devaiah, who kicked off his career with Anurag Kashyap’s That Girl in Yellow Boots, was initially wary of being typecast. 

Devaiah says, “Initially I was (worried about being typecast). I was playing ‘bad guys’ in some of my initial films so people started offering me a plethora of bad guys and I was a bit concerned about that. But that concern died down also.”

The actor believes that the advent of OTT has been beneficial for filmmakers and actors because opportunities have increased. He adds that there is little space for innovation in cinema when people focus on trends and making money. 

“A trend is set and then some people will take the trend and make it better and others will milk it till the last drop. And it'll die a painful death. When people in the entertainment business are concerned about which trend is making money and they just keep doing that, it doesn’t leave any space for new trends to happen,” Devaiah says. 

“Why wait for the fatigue to set in? Allow the business to become compatible with trying new things as well. I was watching a video essay that was talking about ‘New Hollywood’ in the 70s that featured some very eminent directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Brain De Palma.”

Gulshan Devaiah, Actor

He adds, “That happened because the audience was pakaoed (frustrated, annoyed) with everything that was happening. They wanted something new. These people were revolutionary then. But does change always have to be a revolution?”

Gulshan Devaiah names two actors as his favourite – Daniel Day-Lewis and Irrfan. 

“I realised Irrfan’s work meant a lot more to me than I knew when he died. It’s a bit more emotional because that loss is still there somewhere inside me. You don’t know until somebody is gone how important their work was. And then they’re gone and you wonder, ‘Why am I so affected by it?’ Because you’ve been so influenced; you learned so much by just looking at them.”

Gulshan Devaiah, Actor

The actor further talks about why he turned down almost 70 horror scripts but said yes to Dibakar Banerjee’s short in Ghost Stories, shooting an action film (Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota) after a leg surgery, where his Instagram bio ‘Versova ka Versace’ comes from, and more.