Bobby Deol Biography – an Indian Actor and the Animal of Bollywood

Vijay Singh Deol (born 27 January 1969), better known as Bobby Deol, is an Indian actor who works in Bollywood. A member of the Deol family, he is the younger son of actor Dharmendra.

After appearing as a child artist in Dharam Veer (1977), Deol had his first lead role in the romance Barsaat (1995), which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. He established himself with commercially successful action or thriller films, including Gupt (1997), Soldier (1998), Badal (2000), Bichhoo (2000), Ajnabee (2001), and Humraaz (2002). The last of these earned him a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor. It was followed by a career downturn, during which his only successful films were the multi-starrers Apne (2007), Yamla Pagla Deewana (2011), Race 3 (2018), and Housefull 4 (2019). He has since starred in the streaming ventures Class of ’83 (2020), Love Hostel (2022), and Aashram (2020–present).

Early life and family (Bobby Deol Biography)

Deol was born as Vijay Singh Deol on 27 January 1969 into a Punjabi family in Bombay. He is the second son of Bollywood stars Dharmendra and Prakash Kaur. He is the younger brother of Sunny Deol and also has two sisters Vijayta and Ajeeta who live in California. His stepmother is Hema Malini, through whom he has two paternal half-sisters, actress Esha Deol, and Ahana Deol. His cousin Abhay Deol is also an actor.

He married Tanya Ahuja in 1996; the couple has two sons.

Acting career (Bobby Deol Biography)

Debut and commercial success (1995–2002)

Deol first briefly appeared as a child actor at the age of ten in Dharam Veer (1977). Deol then made his adult debut in Bollywood alongside Twinkle Khanna in Barsaat (1995) directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. Deol plays the character of Badal, a naive but intelligent young man who moves from a small village to a big city and gets caught up with corrupt police and criminal gangs while falling in love. The film was a major success at the box office and garnered him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut.

In 1997, Deol starred in Gupt: The Hidden Truth, a suspense thriller directed by Rajiv Rai, which is widely considered his breakthrough role. Cast alongside Manisha Koirala, Kajol, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, and Raj Babbar, Deol played the role of Sahil, a young man accused of murdering his stepfather over an engagement proposal and wrongly imprisoned. He escapes and tracks down the real killer. Gupt: The Hidden Truth was highly acclaimed for its storyline and soundtrack and was a commercial success. In the same year, Deol appeared in Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya, alongside Aishwarya Rai in her debut Bollywood role. The film was a moderate success at the box office.

In 2002, Deol starred alongside his brother Sunny in the historical drama 23rd March 1931: Shaheed. Set in British India, it depicts the events leading up to the hanging of Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh and his companions Rajguru and Sukhdev on 23 March 1931. The film stars Bobby Deol as Bhagat Singh and Sunny Deol as another revolutionary Chandra Shekhar Azad. The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rediff.com believed the movie had plenty of good moments, and plenty of bad ones and believed the film was superior to that of the original on Bhagat Singh, although they believed the agony of Bhagat Singh’s fight was underplayed, diminishing the brutality and anguish suffered in the real-life event. While Deol was praised for some scenes, he was criticized for his loud acting and Rediff.com believed he was overshadowed by Ajay Devgan in The Legend of Bhagat Singh remarking, “In terms of performance, Devgan is clearly the winner, with the advantage of a stronger script and a better director. Devgan, who reportedly lost weight to look the part, is today emerging as one of India’s finest actors, willing to try out different roles. Deol tries his best, but it is difficult to shout and act simultaneously.”

Later in 2002, Deol was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for his role as a suave, wealthy shipping businessman in Abbas-Mustan‘s romantic thriller Humraaz. The film is inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder (1954) (remade in 1998 as A Perfect Murder) and features Deol in a love triangle with Ameesha Patel and Akshaye Khanna. The film received positive reviews from critics, with Chitra Mahesh of The Hindu saying, “Deol spends the entire first half looking moony-eyed and spaced out, but overcomes the stupor towards the end where he actually gives a good performance.” Deol’s final film of 2002 was David Dhawan’s Chor Machaaye Shor in which he acted alongside Paresh Rawal, Shilpa Shetty, Bipasha Basu, and Om Puri. He played Shyam, a small-time crook who gets his hands on some diamonds worth millions.

Career decline and sabbatical (2004–2013)

In 2003, Deol took a hiatus from acting and returned to the screen in 2004 in Kismat opposite Priyanka Chopra. In Bardaasht, a drama based on the screenplay written by Vikram Bhatt, Deol starred alongside Lara Dutta and Rahul Dev as Aditya Shrivastav, a deserted army officer. The film deals with themes of police brutality corruption and justice. Deol then played another army officer, a Lieutenant Commander in Anil Sharma‘s Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo as Kunaljit Singh/Vikramjeet Singh. The film, which featured an ensemble cast including Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar, was arguably Deol’s most high-profile film to date, but despite the hype and high box office expectations, it proved a commercial disaster. However, he received praise for his role which had him wear a pugh/turban, which gave him more of an audience from the Punjabi crowd, and inspired comments saying he looks better in a turban.

In 2005, Deol starred in Vikram Bhatt’s thriller Jurm as the wealthy businessman Avinash Malhotra who suspects his wife Sanjana (Lara Dutta) of having an affair with Rohit (Milind Soman). Deol’s performance was praised by a number of critics, with Vivek Fernandes of Rediff.com remarking, “Bobby Deol, Bhatt’s schoolmate, does his alma mater proud with his controlled performance. There’s a sense of maturity about his candor, which is good news.” Deol then starred alongside Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, and Ajay Devgan in Mani Shankar’s war movie Tango Charlie as an Indian trooper named Tarun Chauhan of the 101st BSF Battalion, operating in the northeastern Indian province fighting Bodo militants in Upper Assam. He followed this role by featuring in Suneel Darshan‘s romance film Barsaat as the ambitious young Indian Arav, who, living in the United States, becomes involved in a love triangle with Priyanka Chopra and Bipasha Basu. The film was a critical and commercial failure, with Ziya us Salaam of The Hindu concluding, “A moth-eaten love triangle with all the stereotypes Bollywood survives on – a devoted wife with her karva chauth ki thali, the other woman with her mini-skirts, a joint family, songs, festivities….. No shower of rejuvenation, this Barsaat is just drenched in mediocrity.” She was equally unimpressed with Deol’s performance, remarking, “The girls are ready with their curls and curves, the guy just appears lost, making you wonder if Bobby has grown even an inch as an actor since he made his debut in Rajkumar Santoshi‘s film of the same name.” His final role in 2005 was as Karan in Dosti: Friends Forever, opposite Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Kareena Kapoor, and Juhi Chawla. He once again plays a wealthy businessman but is down on his luck with his finances and romancing women. The film, although performing below average in India was a major success in the United Kingdom, where it became the highest grosser of Bollywood in 2005, grossing around £888,000.

In 2008, Deol starred opposite Priyanka Chopra, Danny Denzongpa, and Irrfan Khan in the crime drama Chamku, playing the lead character and titlesake of Chamku, a man raised by Baba (Danny Denzongpa), a Naxal leader based in the southern interiors of Bihar, after his family was brutally murdered. He is assigned by a covert governmental program jointly conceived by RAW and the Intelligence Bureau to carry out political assassinations but after falling in love with the kindergarten teacher Shubhi (Priyanka Chopra), he decides to lead a reformed life but is later tempted to turn to crime again. Kabeer Kaushik, the director of the film had originally approached Deol to play the lead role in his debut film, Sehar, but despite liking the script, Deol turned it down because at the time he was not prepared to work with a debutant director. Deol next featured in Heroes as an army officer and Dhananjay “DJ” Shergill alongside a strong cast that included Salman Khan, Preity Zinta, Sunny Deol, and Mithun Chakraborty. Although initially set to be released on 6 June 2008, it was pushed to 24 October 2008, the opening weekend of the holiday Diwali. Much of the filming took place in northern India, including Ladakh (notably Pangong Tso), Chandigarh, Punjab, and Delhi. Deol’s last role in 2008 was in the film Dostana, as Abhimanyu Singh, a supporting role to the films’ main stars Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, and Priyanka Chopra under the Dharma Productions banner. The film explores the story of two men who pretend to be gay, but both fall in love with the same girl, their roommate. Dostana is the first Bollywood film to be filmed entirely in Miami, United States, and went on to become the eighth highest-grossing film at the Indian box office in 2008.

In 2009, Deol portrayed Nandu, an orphan turned assassin wrongly accused of a politician‘s murder in the movie Ek: The Power of One.

Deol’s next film titled, Help, was shot in Mauritius, in which he appeared opposite Mugdha Godse. The film was released on 13 August 2010. Deol then starred in Yamla Pagla Deewana which was released on 14 January 2011. He later starred in the film Thank You opposite Sonam Kapoor. His character is a businessman who is unfaithful to his wife. In 2012, he appeared in the heist film Players. He played the role of Ronnie, who has no experience in conning people, but is a master of illusions. He was one of the most popular illusionists who abandoned magic after a tragic incident.

Comeback (2017–present) (Bobby Deol Biography)

Bobby Deol made his comeback in 2017 with Shreyas Talpade‘s directorial venture Poster Boys alongside his brother Sunny Deol. The film failed to re-establish Deol and was declared a flop.

In 2018, Deol played the role of Yash in the action thriller Race 3 alongside Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez. Despite receiving negative reviews, it was a box office success with a worldwide of ₹303 crore. It became the 6th highest-earning Hindi film of 2018. It marked the career comeback for Deol. He also starred as Kalaa in the comedy film Yamla Pagla Deewana: Phir Se in 2018, co-starring Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, and Kriti Kharbanda.

In 2019, he starred in the comedy film Housefull 4 alongside an ensemble cast of Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, and Kriti Kharbanda, the film was released on 25 October 2019 and was directed by Farhad Samji. The film became a major commercial success by grossing ₹300 crores worldwide.

Class of ’83 (2020) was released on Netflix, where he played the character of a police officer. The film is based on the book The Class of ’83 and tells the story of a hero policeman shunted to a punishment posting as the dean of the police academy. Class of ’83 was Netflix’s third collaboration with Red Chillies Entertainment, following the original series Bard of Blood and Betaal. The film premiered on 21 August 2020 on Netflix and received mixed reviews; however, it earned Deol a nomination for the Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actor in a Web Original Film. In 2020, his web series Aashram premiered on MX Player original series where he played the character of Baba Nirala. Deol’s role as an antagonist earned him much critical praise and two nominations for the Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series.

Post the success of Aashram, audiences and various critics have agreed that Deol has made a stellar comeback in his second innings.

Filmography (Bobby Deol Biography)

Films

Television

Awards and nominations

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