'Bobby is like a son to me'

Family Guy

Actor Sunny Deol’s cheerful and pleasant personality has always got him enough attention. With his new film Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 hitting the screens soon, Metrolife caught up with this action hero, who was at PVR, recently.

Sunny details, “We’ve always had a great time working together as a family. To me, this is when we’re actually together as a family. Otherwise I’m somewhere and Bob (Bobby) and papa (Dharmendra) are elsewhere. It’s only in the mornings or on certain occasions that we’re all together.”

Ask Sunny about his memories on the set, and he narrates, “My birthday was one of the most memorable moments on the sets of Yamla Pagla.... My son was assisting on the sets, and suddenly there was cake-cutting and my son sang a song for me. It was a very emotional moment. My dad and I were in tears.”

Replying to the rumours about his son making an entry into filmdom, Sunny says, “I won’t be directing the film since I want to act in many films. We will be launching him in a year, but are not in a position to name the projects yet.”

So is Sunny the typical big brother to Bobby?

Sunny’s quick to answer, “We bond a lot in our family. Bobby is like a son to me, especially because of our age gap of more than ten years. I’ve always tried to do the best for him. “Sunny smiles and adds, “He does take advantage of that sometimes.”

With a career spanning over three decades, Sunny says, “There are lots of movies and roles which I want to do. I’m doing a film which will release later this year, where I play a Sanskrit teacher. I’m always hunting for new subjects.” He pauses and adds, “I would love to act in a ‘Gladiator’ or something like Dharam Veer which my dad worked in.”

Sunny believes that the film industry changes with the country. He opines, “I feel that the golden period from the industry’s point of view was the late 50s, 60s and a
bit of the 70s. Lots of great talent, from lyricists to directors to actors were seen then. As time went by, the country started changing and so did entertainment.”

About his other interests, Sunny elaborates, “I’ve always been into sports since childhood. I never used to bother about studies at school and would always be involved with school games. I used to play a lot of football and used to play for the team.

If I wasn’t an actor, I would have been a sportsman.” 

Ask Sunny about his Bangalore connection and he says, “My career started with Betaab and a 45-day shooting for the film was done here. Since then, I’ve loved to be here. There used to be a ‘Princess’ restaurant around, but it’s gone now. Things have changed now.” 

He recollects, “KC Das is still there, and I remember stocking up Bengali sweets and sweet dahi. We would take back four to five cartons of sweet delights from here because we wouldn’t get that in Mumbai. I have great memories of Bangalore.” Sunny sums up, “Bangalore is a city of openness. The people and food are absolutely loveable. It’s a place where I would venture out and do things I want to do.”