Gulshan Devaiah on Netflix’s Guns & Gulaabs: ‘The inspiration from Sanjay Dutt & Mithun Chakraborty’ | Not Just Bollyood

Though Gulshan Devaiah was not much eager to play a negative role as Char Cut Atmaram in Netflix’s Guns & Gulaabs, he agreed to it because it was a Raj & DK film. From Sanjay Dutt’s mullet cut to Mithun Chkraborty’s dressing, he took inspiration from the movies of the 80s and 90s for his role.  But the first inspiration for him was actor Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men.

 Edited excerpts from the interview:

What made you agree for the role in Guns & Gulaabs?

It’s very difficult to say ‘no’ to Raj & DK when he comes with something to you because you know it is going to be different and something out of the box. I was a bit skeptical because I had stopped playing the part of a villain because at that time I was also shooting for Dahaad. I thought it wouldn’t be the appropriate time to play the bad guy.

But the Raj and DK insisted that I should have a look at the character with an open mind and to read the script. They sent me all the Atmaram scripts of Guns & Gulaabs. I thought about it for some time and I really wanted to connect with it. I started to feel that if I don’t do this, I felt that I might feel bad later because I had let something good go.

What was the preparation like along with the look and the haircut?

The first germ inside me was No Country for Old Men and my favourite character was Anton Chigurh played by actor, Javier Bardem. He is the bad guy and one of the most devastatingly chilling villain of all time. So, I thought I will use this as an inspiration for Atmaram. But it developed into something very different from Anton Chigurh.

Growing up in the early nineties, wrestling and WWF, all of those things were very big for us.  And of course the hairstyle was inspired by Sanjay Dutt. That was a reference that came from Raj and DK’s side. But I had ideas about the teeth, eyes, but they wanted a different colour and I wanted lighter eyes. The tattoo ideas were theirs and the clothes references were from Mithun Chakraborty’s look from his earlier films in the eighties. A lot of the work went behind it and I allowed my influences to take over my imagination and build the character.

What are your views on cinema changing?

It’s a great time for cinema and there is more variety. Cinema is a part of popular culture and we have to keep changing and evolving with time. It is artistic and also for mass consumption and it is absolutely natural for it to change. And true to its time, there are so many varieties. But during my growing up years in the eighties and nineties, we didn’t have so many choices. And that applied for food too. Today we can choose things which is why there will not be unanimous views about anything and so reviews will always be mixed. Like some people will like a certain show, some will find it bad like in the case of Guns & Gulaabs. Now you can pick and choose what you want to do and what sort of stories you want to be attached with.

On Duranga 2, how has your character evolved, now that you have just finished shooting?

 The story is going to progress. Now we have Amit Sadh also in Duranga 2. My relationship with Drashti in the show is also under a lot of stress. My character was shown to be someone who is stoic, but now it is different. It was great to reunite with Rohan Sippy after 13 years.