Bobby Deol on satire, success and The Bads of Bollywood: ‘There’s no business like your business’

Actor plays a superstar in Aryan Khan's directorial debut for Netflix

Bobby Deol says he understands his character Ajay Talwar in the Netflix series The Bads of Bollywood. Antonie Robertson / The National

Deconstructing the Bollywood myth in fiction is a tricky tightrope few have walked successfully. Over the decades, it has been tackled in movies such as Guru Dutt’s seminal tragic romance Kaagaz Ke Phool, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s romantic comedy Guddi, Farah Khan’s masala potboiler Om Shanti Om, Zoya Akhtar’s Luck by Chance and Maneesh Sharma’s action thriller Fan.

From celebrating the movies to reality checks on fame and parasocial relationships between stars and their fans, you might expect films about the industry to have gone everywhere possible.

Netflix’s newest Indian television series The Bads of Bollywood aims to prove us wrong. But why are we exploring the volatile landscape of the Hindi film industry yet again? Bobby Deol, who plays calculating superstar Ajay Talwar in the show, has some theories.

“There’s no business like your business,” the actor, who was in Dubai with co-star Raghav Juyal on Wednesday, tells The National. “We’ve got tons of reference points, from the faces we’ve known to the people we’ve spoken to and dealt with. And there are a lot of untold stories there that we discuss with each other every day.”

Deol’s character reflects his broader experiences during a Bollywood career that has spanned more than three decades. “I’ve experienced so much in life, not just professionally, but also as a parent, getting to know what being a father means. It’s also why I can understand my character to an extent, and the decisions he makes.

Bobby Deol as Ajay Talvar in The Bads of Bollywood. Photo: Netflix

“I don’t think of Ajay Talwar as an inherently bad or good person morally. He’s just a guy using everything in his toolbox to protect the ones he loves.”

The Bads of Bollywood marks the debut of Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan as both writer and director. It balances Bollywood maximalism with a biting, irreverent satire on the film industry that boldly goes where nobody but Khan could go.

The show’s peek into the messy interpersonal politics of the storytelling business shatters the beautiful lie and turns the reality into a cruel joke, with the figures we idolise becoming punchlines.

Bobby Deol, left, and Raghav Juyal in Dubai. Antonie Robertson / The National

Produced by Khan's mother, Gauri Khan, under the banner of Red Chillies Entertainment, The Bads of Bollywood's cast also includes Lakshya, Mona Singh, Sahher Bambba, Anya Singh, Manoj Pahwa, Rajat Bedi and Manish Chaudhary.

Juyal is full of praise for Aryan Khan. “What Aryan has done so well is to play with … the overall idea of Bollywood. There are so many stories that you’ve seen in entertainment news that are covered to such an insane degree, it’s just perfect.”

Raghav Juyal, left, and Lakshya in The Bads of Bollywood. Photo: Netflix

He adds: “The best thing Aryan did was to hold intensive workshops [for the actors], where we had an absolute blast, but it also taught us so much more about the people we worked with. I already shared that kind of rapport with [lead star] Lakshya since Kill, but those workshops helped make the on-screen friendship so much more convincing.”

Deol says: “Aryan knew exactly what the tone of my voice needed to be. He knew how much or how restrained I needed to be when expressing emotion. I’ve learnt a lot from him, because his process has pushed us to emote in ways we’d never have thought before.”

When asked what viewers might take from the show, Juyal stresses how personal each person's experience will be.

The show's writer and director Aryan Khan, second left, with his Bollywood star father Shah Rukh Khan, mother and producer Gauri Khan, and siblings Abram and Suhana. AFP

“A lot of people will take back the emotion of euphoria with them, and then there are those who will notice the sadness and the cracks. It’s all subjective.”

Then, after a pause, he adds: “Also that Bollywood is more than the stuff you see on screen. It’s all the people, good, bad and somewhere in the middle too.”

The Bads of Bollywood is now streaming on Netflix