Bollywood’s ‘Bad Man’ Gulshan Grover turns good man for a web film

After entertaining the fans with his villainous roles in Bollywood films, the ultimate ‘Bad Man’, Bollywood’s most dreaded villain, Gulshan Grover, is set to take his career to the next level – a level where he has a lot of competition, but still he is willing to take that challenge. Grover will feature as the real hero in India’s first ever web movie called ‘Badman’.

‘Badman’ is not a web series, but a web movie…

‘Badman’ is a first of its kind web movie which would be made available to the internet audience on Viacom 18’s video-on-demand channel ‘Voot’. Talking about the same Gulshan said, “For the first time, Viacom 18 has tried to treat its digital audience with dignity and respect. So far, we just had picked up content which was available on the net, but ‘Badman’ is exclusive content which would be available for the digital audience.”

He further revealed that this is the first of its kind web movie which would be released all over the globe in cinemas, but India. The movie, which has been conceptualised by ‘Gulaab Gang’ director Shoumik Sen, will first release on Voot for Indian audience and if it generates a positive response then it will make it to the theatres. The ‘villain’ seems to be extremely positive as it is the first time that he will be seen portraying a positive character as the lead of the film.

On trying something unusual…

“Definitely it is quiet challenging to play a positive character, but at the same time it is interesting. There is obviously a burden to be the hero and fight the villain; but as an actor, I have never been afraid from accepting challenges,” says Grover.

So if Gulshan Grover is playing the hero, then who is the villain he is supposed to fight?

“There’s some ambiguity on this front,” he adds. Reports suggest that comedian Chunky Pandey is set to essay the role of a villain, but Mr. Badman’s thoughts differ. He says, “The beauty of this web movie is that people would keep wondering who the actual villain is… you never know by the end of it, even Akshay Kumar might turn out to be the villain!”

He also revealed that many Bollywood celebrities are a part of this film. The list includes Rishi Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Manisha Koirala and many more who will play the role of Gulshan Grover’s friends. In ‘Badman’, the villain-turned-hero is going to essay his own character, i.e. of Gulshan Grover. The film would highlight the nuances of how he is perceived as the villain due to his on-screen characters whereas he is quite an opposite in real life. The key element of the film would be humour.

How different is it being a hero and not a villain?

“Being a hero is comparatively easy. You need to have good looks, deliver some heavy dialogues and done! But being a villain is more challenging. You have limited amount of time in which you have to spread your magic and leave a lasting impact on the audience. To be a villain, you have to be a really good villain,” says Grover.

Hollywood projects in the pipeline…

Gulshan proudly confesses that he was the first one to conquer the world of Hollywood. With many international projects in his kitty, he now aims to be a part of world cinema. He has several international projects including Malayasian, Iranian, Australian and Italian films. But he also revealed that he had to spend good amount of time to clear the misconceptions held by Hollywood industry about the commercial Bollywood films and stars.

When asked to elaborate on the same, he said that earlier Hollywood was a little sceptical about the professionalism of Bollywood stars. He says, “Hollywood filmmakers couldn’t relate to Bollywood films as we have a typical format. We have so many songs, long films and many more, which Hollywood stars couldn’t relate to.” He clarified that this situation existed around 20-25 years ago. Now there are Hollywood stars, who want to dance on songs and are enthusiastic enough about Bollywood films.

While signing off, he praised the power of digital medium saying that everyone is talking about going digital and he hopes that this medium creates a standard platform for writers, directors and other creative people to explore their talents.