Deepak Dobriyal on Angrezi Medium: 'Worked 14 hours to promote the film before coronavirus lockdown'

When Deepak Dobriyal scored low marks in class 12, hardly did one expect that he would consider that to be a fortunate turn of events, that would thrive him to be an actor, instead of pursuing commerce.

Recently, the actor was seen in Kaamyaab and Angrezi Medium, both of which failed at the box office, not because of the context of the film, but due to the coronavirus scare that had restricted everyone from visiting theatres, restaurants and other places. During an exclusive conversation with International Business Times, actor Deepak Dobriyal talked about the unexpected failure, Angrezi Medium had to face despite its strong content. 

What are you doing during the lockdown?

You know the world is under lockdown, so even we are following it. We came to Uttarakhand to shoot a film and now we are stuck here. Many of our crew members have gone back, and we were hoping that we could do that, but this lockdown was called for a long period of time. So I am here in my hometown.

The fact that Irrfan was not a part of the promotion, did it emotionally affect you?

Yes, of course, and that gave us more energy in promoting the film. I have never done so much promotion, I worked 14 hours to promote this film. Two of my films were supposed to release in March, Kamyaab and Angrezi Medium. Now both of them have been affected due to coronavirus pandemic. Chalo koi baat nehi wohi maine bahut mehnat kiya tha, (it's not a problem now but I did work really hard to promote these films.)

Was it a conscious decision to shoot in London, so Irrfan could continue his treatment while shooting for the film?

Oh no-no-no. It was a requirement for the story. The script demanded our presence in London.

Who's presence did you feel most important. Dialogue wise? 

I felt everyone was important, but what you are asking is a decision only the public can answer, only they can say who did the best. We as actors did our job. I felt everyone had a strong role to play. Meanwhile, I loved working with Irrfan, he too enjoyed his job.

But Angrezi Medium released and suddenly the lockdown happened. 

It felt bad you know, we work so hard and then when we hear that all halls will be closed, the film won't be screened. You do feel bad. It's as if someone cursed you. We worked hard so much to make sure we entertain the audience but then this lockdown happened, it did hurt us.

Then we tried to look for something positive, maybe God had better plans for me and he wanted me to do better. This was a film we had planned after the success of Hindi Medium. The response we got from the public after watching the trailer we were extremely impressed and confident that this film would work, it was amazing. Even trade analysts had predicted that this film would be a huge hit.

Much like Radhika Madan's character in the film, do you think students like to go abroad to be cool?

I don't have much idea about this. But I have seen how Indian schools work, both government and private educational institutions. But where we stayed in London, the students were very serious there. But I think studious people will study everywhere no matter where they go.

So did you always want to be an actor?

In class 11-12. I had Commerce as my subject, but I wanted to study Arts, but my father forced me to take up Commerce. Later, I got low scores in class 12 but now I feel thankful for that. It's good that I got low scores, I started looking for other options. I'm very grateful that I got low marks.