Deepak Dobriyal aka Pappiji tells you why you should never bother about your looks

He belongs to the rare breed of actors in Bollywood for whom, looks are secondary. Deepak Dobriyal, aka the affable Pappiji of ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’ fame, says good looks no longer guarantee success in films.

‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’, he says, was a turning point in his Bollywood career that started in 2003 with a small role in Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘Maqbool’. “I am perhaps the ugliest character in Tanu Weds Manu Returns with shabby hair and beard. I wore a dirty tattered sweater in the film for five shots in a row. Despite the shabbiness, I am glad that the character has been appreciated by people and my friends in the industry. This is because Pappiji’s character was rich in its content,” he says. In fact, apart from Kangana Ranaut and R Madhavan, Deepak is the only character in the movie, who has managed to make a mark with his comic timing.

He says getting into the character of Pappiji was a learning process.  “Umeed se teen guna zyada pyaar mila iss character ke liye,” says the actor, who has worked in critically acclaimed films like ‘Blue Umbrella’, ‘1971’, ‘Gulaal’, ‘Omkara’ and a commercial hit like ‘Dabaang’. Although he has been working in Bollywood for over a decade, recognition came in very late. However, that was no deterrent for Deepak, who is always keen on doing ‘out-of-the-box’ roles. The actor is happy that the industry is finally taking note of him.

Deepak was last seen in ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’ directed by Sooraj Barjatya, starring Salman Khan and Sonam Kapoor. He played the role of Salman’s friend Kanhaiya. “In fact,  Soorajji offered me this role after seeing Tanu Weds Manu and he wanted a Pappiji kind of a character for PRDP, who is Salman Bhai’s sidekick in the movie,” says Deepak, who had strong background in theatre before coming to Bollywood.

He worked with Asmita Theatre Group of Arvind Gaur and Act 1 Theatre Group of NK Sharma for seven years in New Delhi. He did 40 plays with both the theatre groups which were mostly based on women empowerment, labour laws and retrenchment issues and environment issues. “I remember on March 8 every year, we did eight women-oriented plays at a stretch. I was socially very active but as my ambition was to do films, I shifted my base to Mumbai from Delhi and started auditioning in 2002,” he recalls.

Deepak says Bollywood is gradually experimenting with unconventional scripts, which is why actors like him are getting more screen space. “A director like Anurag Kashyap is God for actors like me because he is one of the few directors in the industry who are willing to experiment with hatke scripts. Then there are acclaimed filmmakers like Vishal Bharadwaj, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Dibakar Banerjee and Raju Hirani who are the men behind this new phase of Bollywood,” he says. The actor wants to play roles that make him go the extra mile to prove his mettle. “I think I arrived in the industry at the right time and I want to make the most of this opportunity,” Deepak smiles.

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