Neil Bhoopalam is somewhere impersonating Aamir Khan in Ghajini. The forgetful actor has written down his daily chores on his wrist including buying ‘figs’, which he has been asked to pick up by his wife, Nandini Shrikent. The actor met her when he was auditioning for a role. He smiles when reminded him about the parallel with Aamir’s character.
His recent outing in NH10, where he played a young man embroiled in a violent crime, has been applauded by critics and audiences. The actor is enjoying his moment under the limelight. He confides he even enjoyed the promotions for the Anushka Sharma production. “I loved it. I enjoyed all the attention,” says the actor who has now hit the showbiz turf hard.
He remembers the first time when he was noticed was four years back in Bejoy Nambiar’s dark narrative Shaitan. His quirky Parsi Zubin act was applauded.
“I had just finished shooting for No One Killed Jessica when Shaitan happened. After Shaitan everything changed. It had a domino effect.” Before Shaitan, he had done spate of small films even while he was a VJ on TV. “I’ve done some potty films in the past. My first film was produced by Shatrughan Sinha - Mera Dil Leke Dekkho, starring Jackie Shroff and Archana Puran Singh. Sonakshi Sinha was the costume designer; she was 17 then and a chubby young girl.”
He was also seen in Sharat Kataria’s 10ML Love (based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night Dream) and Rajat Kapoor’s Fatso. But both the films took a long time to release. He even did Dharma Productions’ Ungli directed by Rensil D’Silva and starring Emraan Hashmi and Kangana Ranaut but that film too got delayed. “Whether a film works at the box-office or not is attributed to various factors. It’s neither in your hands nor the director’s. You just have to give it your 100 per cent and hope for the best. While we were doing an Oscar Wilde play, the Israeli director, Gil Alon, told me, ‘If people give negative feedback to your show, don’t worry. And if they give positive feedback, don’t hold on to it. You know how much time and effort you have given to it. Opinions are irrelevant.’ That’s something which has stuck with me.”
It was during Ungli that he got a call to play a role in the TV series 24. “I’m aware of the power of the television but I had to think hard before making a switch again. But then I realised why should I over analyse it, it would be like counting the chickens before they hatch.” To his surprise, the television audience, which is used to the saas-bahu and glycerine sagas, lapped up this thriller drama. And what films couldn’t do to his career, well, the show 24, surely did. Neil credits its success to producer Anil Kapoor, who brought the international series to Indian audiences. “As an actor, you’re always riding on someone else’s project unless you reach a stage where you have your own production house.”
The thriller, somewhere, led him to bag Anushka Sharma’s maiden production NH10. “NH10 had more producers (Phantom Films, Clean Slate Films and Krishika Lulla) than actors,” he jokes. The actor is all praise for the actress-turned-producer, “Anushka Sharma was on set as an actor and not as a producer. If she was going to be preoccupied with production work, it wouldn’t have worked as her role was quite demanding.” Neil served as a perfect foil to Anushka’s distressed character in the film. The movie had the couple being witnesses to a murder on the highway. What triggered him to take up a woman-centric film? “I had watched Manorama Six Feet Under (directed by Navdeep Singh) even before I wanted to be an actor.
NH 10 was giving me a chance to work with Navdeep, so there was no thinking-twice in this situation.” He adds, “You need to be part of good projects. It sucks when people say that you were good in this film or play but we didn’t like the story. I would like to aim for both, a good story and a good performance. So whether it is an ensemble film or a woman-centric one I will be a part of it.”
NH10 was postponed by a week for its violent content and the cuss words, which proved to be an issue with the Censor Board. “A film can be as violent as possible. It can have as many cuss words as possible. Why is there moral policing happening when it comes to our films?” He continues, “This control will trickle into our films, theatre and then books. Anyway, there are too many books getting banned in India. You could agree or disagree with literature but you cannot tell someone you can’t read that. What gives you the right to believe your opinion is correct?”
Neil believes with such constraints no one will write good scripts as these bans will kill liberty. “If you want intelligent themes to prevail, mindless advertising should be banned. You cannot have some cheap instant gratification images. A packet of chips and deodorant gets girls... what is that? Young minds are getting affected by these stupid ads. Kids have killed themselves over not getting a mobile and mobile ads say using this particular phone gets you friends? Isn’t that harmful?” he asks concernedly.
To dissipate his anger, we veer towards his other passions – theatre being a longstanding one. Recently, he was occupied with The Merchant Of Venice while he was promoting NH10. “I won’t give up theatre. I have done comedy and a lot of crowd pleasing stuff on stage. But wonder why no one has offered me comedy in films.” He’s game for candyfloss stuff as well. “I would love to romance on screen but nothing has come my way. Varun Dhawan and Ranveer Singh are brilliant in that sphere probably because they were clear about what they wanted to do. Focus keeps you on track.”
He has 24 Season 2 coming up and on the film front, he wants to work with fresher minds. “Navdeep must be 50-something but his creative acumen is young. I want to work with such creative directors like him. They are fearless. No market and budget worries. Just pure cinematic aesthetics.” Point noted. But before he heads home, I remind him about the figs his wife is waiting for.
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