What Gulshan Devaiah Will Do (And What He Won’t)
The actor in a conversation with Esquire India on playing villains, direction plans and his approach towards fashion
There may be several ways to play a villain, but none of them is quite like Gulshan Devaiah’s way. A devilish grin, a sideways glance, the most unpredictable punchline—Devaiah has nailed the bad guy for over a decade ago. He played a psychotic control freak in Hate Story (2012), a unhinged mob boss in the 2018 Vasan Bala film Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota and a ’90s-style merciless mercenary in the Netflix series Guns & Gulaabs. The political thriller Ulajh (2024), too, saw him play a double-dealing ISI agent opposite Janhvi Kapoor.
“I really don’t look at parts as negative or positive. I must have a genuine compulsion to want to explore them and they have to not be bad for my career. I guess bad guys can be fun to play because they have more layers written into them but I’m just saying this because I’m trying to find a good answer to this question,” he jokes.
Quintessential Devaiah. But this creative ambivalence is an unmistakable aspect of most of the grey characters that he does. And after years of playing wicked guys, he’s at it again in Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1.
For King Kulashekhara in the film, which is this year’s most anticipated big-screen projects, he was given “substantial freedom to interpret” the character. Playing the power-hungry, egotistical, indulgent offspring of a benevolent father “was quite the experience” for him.
“The part was written for me and from the beginning workshops to the final day of dubbing, I’d say I had lots of fun,” says Devaiah. “Sure, it was very challenging to make this movie, but nothing good happens without having to overcome challenges,” adds the actor, who continues to believe in the power of big-screen films.
Alongside the obviously morally unscrupulous parts, Devaiah has a steady roster of more upstanding, positive characters going. The introspective police officer Devi Lal Singh in the Amazon Prime Video show Dahaad, progressive and always smiling lawyer Guru Narayan in Badhaai Do (2022), CBI inspector Vivan Deshmukh in Footfairy (2020)—these are parts that may sometimes seem like aberrations in a career where the actor seems to have prioritised pockmarked morals.
“Acting is fun for me. The attraction has always been characters that I find interesting and compelling, and every character is easy once I figure it out.”
These are also the kind of characters that viewers may not necessarily associate with him. But the actor is firm on his choices. “My choices are always personal choices and not driven by others’ preferences. My career is going to be diverse—and that’s the bottom line. There’s something for everyone here.”
Indeed. The character that shot him into popular imagination among the mainstream Hindi cinema audience was the mild-mannered Mandar Ponkshe in the 2015 cult classic Hunterrr.
In life, as in his work, Devaiah stands for a sort of matter-of-fact sardonicism that’s rarely observed in actors, from his media interactions to the witty comments he leaves on Instagram posts. You might even term him a ‘badass’. “Hahahaha, [I stay that way] by enjoying being myself and not thinking too much about receiving validation or wanting to please others or to run after views et cetera. I just want to be my authentic self in person or on social media.”
The same authenticity follows him as a man of style. The actor, who studied and taught fashion before turning to theatre and then films, enjoys it thoroughly. “It’s not at all a distraction. Fashion should be fun, else it’s best to dress practically,” says Devaiah, who it is not hard to find out and about in a hat.
“[Fashion] mostly doesn’t interfere with my craft but the knowledge of design helps my work as an actor. I understand space/negative space, depth of field, perspective, lensing and framing from a designer’s perspective—and it’s very useful for me.”
And that—even if not his layered and instinctive understanding of characterisation—begs the question: does he plan to direct anytime soon?
“I thought long and hard about it, indulged in some ideas I’ve had for a while and then gave up. I really think people who really want to tell stories and direct should get that opportunity. Not someone like me who doesn’t have the same passion or desire for direction. I’ll stick to acting.”