When comedian, actor and improv trainer Neville Bharucha first received a call to audition for Aryan Khan’s show The Ba***ds of Bollywood, he almost turned it down. At that time, he was working as a school teacher and wasn’t confident about doing a Hindi web series, but after some convincing, he agreed. And what followed was one of the best auditions he had done, eventually landing him the role of DJ Adam. Though he had a brief screen time, Neville’s performance left a lasting impact. Filmfare caught up with him for a candid chat where he reflected on his journey with the series, from his first encounter with Aryan Khan and working alongside veterans like Manoj Pahwa, to the surreal experience of meeting Shah Rukh Khan.
How did you land an opportunity of working in The Bads Of Bollywood?
I remember getting the call while I was sitting at Bangalore Airport. I initially refused because I was a school teacher at the time, and my Hindi isn’t great, so a web series didn’t seem like the best idea. But the lady on the phone convinced me to go for the audition. I went, and it turned out to be one of the best auditions I’ve ever done. I remember walking out, calling my wife, and telling her, “I think I’m going to get this part.” And sure enough, a month later, I got a call from the same guy who took the audition, who, by the way, did a fantastic job, too.
How was your first meeting with Aryan?The first time I met Aryan was when I had gone to the Red Chillies office for a table read. I entered the building and I rushed toward the elevator, pressed the button, and someone stopped me from getting in until I heard a voice from inside say, “No, no, let him in.” I stepped in, and there he was, Aryan Khan. He greeted me very warmly as if we had known each other for years, exchanged pleasantries, and I was surprised that he already knew quite a bit about me. He’d clearly done his research, and that was the start of something wonderful.
Can you recall any significant moment from the first table read?
The first feeling I had at the table read was, wow, this is probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. That table read was truly fascinating. Watching everyone bring their characters to life was incredible. I remember looking down at my script, hearing the others read, and thinking, Oh my god, the talent these guys have. I honestly couldn’t wait to see how it would all translate on screen, and it turned out outstanding. It was such a wonderful feeling, something I’d never experienced before, and honestly, it was just next level.
What kind of brief did you get for your character from Aryan?
The brief for the character was fantastic. Aryan gave me a clear vision and was super open to my interpretation. He described someone irreverent, fun, deeply focused on his music, confident, and a little out there, and I feel I embodied that well. Everyone seemed to respond positively to the role. It was a super fun character to play. In some ways, it was a bit close to me, but also completely different. I would never wear the clothes DJ Adam wore! Still, it was a blast, and they made me look super cool.
What’s the best compliment you have received for your performance?
All compliments are the best. There isn’t one that’s better than another; it’s just really lovely to have people reach out. Friends from school and college, a couple of teachers, even people I’ve only had fleeting interactions with, have messaged to congratulate me. The most annoyingly sweet part, though, is when people click on my Instagram ads for improv classes just to say, “Hey, I don’t want to take your class, just wanted to saycongratson the show.” It’s very kind, but I pay for every click! So essentially, I’m paying Meta for compliments. Appreciate the love but just DM me, ya! Or better yet, sign up for the class. It’s a fun one.
Tell us about your onscreen and off-screen dynamic with Manoj Pahwa, since most of your scenes were with him.
On-screen and off-screen, it was exactly the same fun, full of masti, and just pure chemistry. From day one, the relationship we’ve shared has had so many unspoken moments that come through beautifully on screen. I’ve had the best time shooting with him. He’s such a brilliant actor, there’s so much depth even in the things he doesn’t say. It was truly my absolute pleasure, and honestly, a privilege to work with a veteran like him.
Was there any scene where you broke character or improvised?
For me, comedy comes naturally, so luckily, this wasn’t a very serious character. There was never a moment when I broke character; it all flowed together. A lot of my reactions to the dialogues came instinctively and were probably improvised. Some moments here and there were definitely added on the spot. But that’s the beauty of it, even I, as the actor, can’t always tell what was improvised and what was scripted. It’s all merged seamlessly into one for me.
What kind of a director was Aryan?
Aryan was an incredible director; he has the best facial expressions, so he can always communicate exactly what’s going on in his mind. He’s very open to your interpretation, too, so we’d often try multiple variations of the same scene, which made the process so exciting. He’s always encouraging, always present with his thoughts, and so sharp and thorough that it genuinely inspires you to give your best. Calling him calm would be an understatement; he’s one of the most chilled-out people I’ve worked with. You hear stories about high-pressure sets, but Aryan made everything feel effortless. I was genuinely lucky to have someone like him direct me; I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Did you get to interact with SRK on or off set?
We’ve met a couple of times, and it’s always been surreal. You see, this man is probably the most loved person in the entire world, and yet, when he talks to you, it feels like you’re the only person that matters in that moment. First time at Mannat; it was late, we were about to leave, and he just came up to us and started chatting. When it was time to go, he personally came and saw each of us out and said goodbye individually. He’s the warmest gentleman around, a true testament to what good values and genuine kindness look like. It’s no wonder the entire world loves him. Even when he met my wife at the screening, he was an absolute delight. She was over the moon. Her exact words to me after meeting him were, “Our marriage has finally paid off.”
Tell us something special about the premiere night…
The premiere night was surreal, the kind of thing people dream about. You hear about it, you see it, but when it actually happens to you, it’s a blur. Walking the carpet, meeting all the people you’ve shared the most wonderful times with, seeing your work on the big screen, going on stage, meeting everyone, it was something else entirely. Afterwards, everyone was so gracious and happy to be together; the whole gang was buzzing with joy. As much as it felt like a culmination, it was really just the beginning. The world hadn’t seen the show yet. In short, it was the perfect start to the rollercoaster of the past few weeks.
What’s the one most significant moment or memory that you would take away from the show?
What I really enjoyed was the time on set when everyone was together, me, Lakshya, Raghav (Juyal), Manoj sir, and Anya (Singh). We’d all have lunch together, and it was such a nice hour to decompress, chat, and just hang out. Those moments, where we really got to know each other, are some of the nicest memories I’ve ever had.
Just a lot of improv teaching, tons of kids’ creative writing classes, improv classes, and doing improv shows. We have shows almost every week or every alternate week at The Habitat, which is always amazing because I love performing live and making people laugh. Those shows are a blast. On top of that, I teach weekend improv classes that I run, and just soaking in everything the work has to offer. That’s about it.
Bobby Deol is experiencing a remarkable career renaissance, celebrating three decades in the film industry with a string of acclaimed performances that have reshaped his standing in Bollywood.
The son of legendary actor Dharmendra and brother of star Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol made his debut as a leading man in 1995 with “Barsaat” and enjoyed early success before experiencing a career slump. However, the advent of streaming platforms has given the actor a second act, allowing him to explore complex, unconventional roles far removed from his earlier larger-than-life characters.
Speaking to Variety, Deol says the fan response remains extraordinary. “It’s kind of overwhelming when you get so much love and keep getting more and more love from the audiences. Thirty years, what better way to celebrate with especially with your fans, and to have such a big, successful web series: ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood.’”
The actor credits streaming platforms with fundamentally altering his career trajectory. “It all changed with OTT platforms for me, because that gave me my first chance to do something different,” he says. His Netflix film “Class of 83” (2020), a gritty police drama set in 1980s Mumbai, marked the beginning — but it was the Amazon MX Player series “Aashram,” in which he played a sinister godman, that truly changed perceptions. “It released one week later, and it just overshadowed ‘Class of 83’ completely. I still, till date, whenever I meet Prakash Ji [director Prakash Jha], I can’t come to terms with it, but it took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that what did he see in me to cast me as Baba Nirala.”
That role signaled to the industry that he was capable of far more than his initial career suggested. “That was the beginning of everything, because people started having belief and faith in me as an actor that, OK, Bobby doesn’t just have to be how I was in my beginning of my career. He can play different characters,” he says.
Deol’s performance as a mute antagonist in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s violent crime saga “Animal” (2023) proved pivotal to his resurgence and led directly to his collaboration with Anurag Kashyap on “Bandar” (Monkey in a Cage), a raw prison drama that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September. After “Animal’s” release, Kashyap called Deol and spoke to him for 45 minutes, expressing admiration for his evolution as an actor. The validation from a filmmaker he’d long admired left Deol both thrilled and anxious.
“I’d been wanting to work with Anurag since years,” Deol says, recalling their various encounters over the decades, from when Kashyap was still a writer visiting his home, to running into each other at their children’s martial arts events and at the gym. “As a director, I’ve always loved his work, and he always gets something different out of every actor he works with.”
The night before his first day of shooting on “Bandar,” sleep eluded him. “I’m like wondering to myself, ‘What have I done that has made Anurag want to work with me?’” At 3 a.m., he put on Netflix and watched “Animal” again, trying to understand what others saw in his performance. “I still couldn’t figure it out, because obviously, as actors, you can’t figure out certain times when things change in your life and what you’ve been waiting for — that moment — happens. It’s like, surreal. It’s like a dream.”
After only an hour of sleep, Deol headed to set, where the experience proved transformative. “Working with Anurag was like being in a workshop. I always give myself completely to my director, and working with Anurag was like going to this acting coach, being with him and giving yourself up — no inhibitions, nothing. Just give yourself completely.”
Kashyap’s communication style made that vulnerability possible. “I think that’s because of the way he communicates with his actors. And I guess that’s the reason why people enjoyed my work in the film, because for me, it was totally out of my image, my everything.”
The process allowed him to learn more about himself. “Every time you’re working on a project, you kind of start understanding different aspects of your emotions,” he says. The film was completed in just 23 days.
“Bandar” marked Deol’s first festival premiere at Toronto’s 50th anniversary, where he also represented his father for the festival’s golden jubilee celebration of “Sholay,” one of the greatest Indian films of all time. “I never imagined going to a film festival. I mean, never thought that a movie of mine will be premiered at a festival,” he says. “And what better way to celebrate — it was the 50th year of TIFF, and I also got the opportunity to represent my father for ‘Sholay’s 50 years. It was like being in India.”
Deol’s decision to join Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan’s directorial debut — the Netflix series “The Ba***ds of Bollywood,” a behind-the-scenes drama exploring the underbelly of the Hindi-language film industry — stemmed from industry solidarity and parental empathy. “I’m a parent myself, and I’m from this industry, and I’d want anyone to be there to stand by me when my sons are getting into this industry,” he says. “I know that Shah Rukh is that kind of a person who would stand by me, or so many people I know in my industry, and I just felt that positive feeling and that emotion and when I got the call, I just said that I’m doing it.”
“The Ba***ds of Bollywood”
Netflix
What began as support became something more substantial after a long meeting with Aryan Khan. “I sat with him for seven hours and heard the whole story because it’s seven episodes, and I just was taken in by his conviction, by his writing, by his thoughts, by his maturity,” he says. “Every time you talk to a director, I always believe you get scripts to read. But when you sit with them and you hear it from them narrating to you, you get a better idea of what they’re visualizing. So I think I just got lucky.”
Deol praises Khan’s approach to the material. “The show, whatever it is, it’s all because of Aryan. I think that child has done a great job. So mature, his conviction, his instincts, his fearlessness, and to give something which is so different yet so connecting. It’s about things you’ve seen, but at the same time it is so differently approached.”
The series’ success, he argues, stems from its comprehensive storytelling. “I think every character in the show is something you’ll remember, not just one person. That happens very rarely. It only when the writing is good and when the direction is good that every actor tries to work hard. But it can only be seen if the captain of the ship can bring it out.”
The series explores Bollywood myths and realities in a very insider way. “I think it’s just making fun of yourself in a way, it’s just being absolutely open,” he says. “It’s a fiction, end of the day. So how do you entertain people? You bring out elements, you show elements, so people discuss them and get excited about it. As it is, ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood’ is a show based on all the myths of the Bollywood industry. Because stories can’t be written if there’s no truth behind it. But most of the stories which are created for cinema or for OTT platforms, they have to be fictionalized, because you got to make it more juicier and more interesting.”
Asked whether being born into the industry but experiencing career setbacks gives him unique insight into how Bollywood treats talent, Deol offers a measured perspective. “I think it works for any kind of industry, for any profession. Being an insider was my luck, because I was born in this family. I never asked to be born in this house.” His father, he notes, was an outsider who struggled for years before his first break.
“Definitely being an insider, I have experienced ups and downs, and I’ve learned from that. So yes, I’m lucky to be Dharmendra’s son, and I’m just so proud about that,” he says. “But at the same time, it’s not easy for anybody. You can be an insider, an outsider. You have to work hard. The only thing that any parent would do for the child is spend their own money to launch you. They have worked so hard that they want the kids to live a very happy life, so they would spend every penny to make things for them. But after that, you have to make every penny worth it with your hard work.”
His journey from a strong start through difficult years to his current resurgence carries particular meaning because his aging parents have witnessed it. “I’m happy that I went through a great start and a bad middle, and now again, I have succeeded to a certain level. And I’m so proud that my parents have seen that, because my parents are growing old, and I wanted that to happen for them,” he says.
“I’ve always felt that I could never live up to my dad’s expectations. I was always this little Bob, the youngest in the house, his golden child, because you end up being the youngest and you end up getting all that affection,” he adds.
The turning point came with his father’s validation. “The biggest compliment I ever got was from my father, like four, five years back, saying that ‘now you’ve understood yourself as an actor’ and ‘I’m very proud of you.’ I think that made me feel very happy, because that’s what I wanted to hear, and I’m really proud of that.”
Having lived through single-screen theaters, the multiplex wave, and now streaming, Deol remains format-agnostic. “I never think about which medium I’m going to be part of in that sense. For me, things have evolved because times are changing. You have to move with the times. So you have to do things according to how the times are moving. Because to exist, you have to be in sync with what’s happening.”
Still, he waxes nostalgic about the communal experience of single-screen cinemas. “The magic of single screen is something else. I’ve grown up watching movies in single screens, and I’ve seen people going crazy. The atmosphere in a single screen is completely something you really, really become a part of when you’re sitting there in the theater.”
Nevertheless, he embraces evolution. “But then multiplex, it had to come, the time had to evolve, and then OTT platforms. I really am happy that OTT platforms exist, because it changed my life. And I think all of them can coexist. It’s just how the creators, they have to be honest with their work and try to do their best.”
Deol also expresses nostalgia for earlier eras of filmmaking. “I always say that I wish I was born in the 30s so I could have been an actor in the 50s and enjoy the golden period and be a part of everything that was done for the first time, because there was so much honesty and sincerity and passion.” Though he hasn’t experienced it himself, he’s heard stories from his father about the kind of filmmakers and the honesty that pervaded that era.
Today’s landscape is different. “But now people have changed. They’ve evolved. Everyone’s living a tough life because it is becoming tougher out there. So there’s no time to get entertained besides seeing things on your mobile phone or your laptop or sitting somewhere, waiting in a lounge. But I’m just glad that these 30 years I’ve actually had a great time and I’m just happy, and I’m so lucky that I’m doing what I love the most still.”
Looking ahead, Deol has “Alpha” releasing Dec. 25, the latest installment in producer Aditya Chopra’s YRF Spy Universe, directed by Shiv Rawail, son of Rahul Rawail who directed his brother Sunny Deol’s first film “Betaab” (1983). “Rahul directed my brother’s first film. And now Shiv, his son is directing his first film, and I’m a part of it, so it makes it special.”
While he occasionally contemplates directing, Deol admits it’s not his calling. “I think I wish I could direct. Sometimes, every actor thinks they want to direct, because as an actor, you start imagining and thinking how the story moves and how that character would react, and how that person would do things. But I’m not someone who can control people. I can’t multitask. So I wish I was a director, but I can’t be one.”
His focus now is on continuing to push boundaries. “I am just glad that my audiences have helped me. The love they’ve given me is giving me the opportunities now to do work which is out of my comfort zone, and just keep surprising myself and surprising the audiences with what I can do. That’s what I’m hoping for.”
Who is Sameer Wankhede? Ex-Narcotics Bureau officer has moved Delhi High Court over…
Read everything about Sameer Wankhede and his link to Aryan Khan and legal action against ‘The Ba***ds of Bollywood.’
Sameer Wankhede, a former Mumbai zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and an IRS officer, is once again in the news. Known for leading high-profile drug cases, Wankhede is also married to actress Kranti Redkar. But what keeps him in the spotlight now is his long-running connection with Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan. In 2021, Aryan was arrested in a major drug case led by Wankhede. The case quickly became one of the most talked-about controversies in the country. Aryan spent time in custody, before being granted bail, and eventually all charges against him were dropped. A different NCB team later admitted that the evidence in the case was weak.
Fast forward to today, Wankhede has filed a lawsuit against Aryan Khan’s directorial debut, The Ba**ds of Bollywood*, streaming on Netflix. Produced by Red Chillies Entertainment, Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan’s banner, the show has drawn Wankhede’s anger for allegedly portraying him unfairly. He claims the series defames him, misrepresents his role as an officer, and damages his reputation.
One scene in particular upset him, where a character makes an obscene gesture right after saying ‘Satyamev Jayate.’ Wankhede argues that this not only insults a national symbol but also hurts public sentiment, which he says is against the law.
In his petition to the Delhi High Court, Wankhede has asked for the series to be restrained from streaming and distribution. He also wants a declaration that the show is defamatory. Interestingly, he has sought ₹2 crore in damages, but not for himself, he has proposed that the amount should be donated to Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital.
As for the show itself, The Ba**ds of Bollywood* is Aryan Khan’s first outing as a director. Set in the world of cinema, it follows the journey of ambitious newcomers trying to find their place in Bollywood, with appearances from some familiar faces.
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Aryan Khan made his much-anticipated directorial debut with The Ba***ds of Bollywood. The show has been receiving a lot of praise and appreciation. Some behind-the-scenes stills have gone viral that show the young director in action – guiding scenes, interacting with the cast, and bringing his focus and flair to every moment.
In one of the stills, he is seen sitting beside his lead actor, Lakshya and looking at a scene on the monitors. Another photo shows Aryan focused on his job as he is surrounded by his other crew members. In a separate click, he is seen smiling at the monitor while checking a scene.
The director also posed with some of his actors and his co-writers, Bilal Siddiqui and Manav Chauhan. The Ba***ds of Bollywood stars Lakshya, Sahher Bambba, Bobby Deol, Raghav Juyal, Anya Singh, Mona Singh, Manoj Pahwa, Gautami Kapoor, Rajat Bedi, Manish Chaudhari and Vijayant Kohli, among others. It is currently streaming on Netflix.
