Don't look, I am dating: Abhay

Yesterday’s freak is today’s rock star. But Abhay Deol, 33, whose last films Dev. D and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! made a place for him in

Bollywood’s history, still lives out of a suitcase.

He’s just back from New York, where he escapes to whenever he feels claustrophobic constantly being in the eye of the media and Bollywood, and where he seeks emotional sustenance from his family. “In America, I get recognised mostly by the people from the sub-continent,’’ he says. “There are days on end when no one even looks at me, and then all of a sudden, some guy recognises me. That comes as a welcome surprise. There are no intrusions on my privacy, though.’’

He admits that the only reason he comes to Mumbai is to solicit work. His earlier outings in the movies — Socha Na Tha, Ahista Ahista, Ek Chalis Ki Last Local and Manorama Six Feet Under — are DVD cult classics, but came a cropper at the box office. If Abhay is amused that perceptions have changed overnight, he’s not bragging about it. “Even when my films were flopping, my price was going up,’’ smiles the actor displaying enviable dimples (a corny aside is that his pet name is Dimpy). Dev Benegal’s Road Movie is his only assignment currently. He has also green lighted Anil Kapoor’s Ayesha with the lovely Sonam. “I’m also in talks for two more films,’’ says Abhay. And he is in the process of setting up his production house.

The man who is responsible for the contemporary take on Sarath Chandra’s Devdas, and is still winning accolades for it, wants only to make different cinema. “Dev. D shocked many,’’ smiles Abhay again. “One of my aunts prayed fervently that the censors wouldn’t pass it because she found the film too abrasive and shocking.’’ He himself thinks Anurag Kashyap is a genius. “I loved his adaptation of Devdas. I agreed to the screen intimacy because I knew I was in a safe pair of hands. But in real life, I’m super-shy.’’

His sole intention now is to keep pushing the envelope as far as Hindi films go. “Song and dance in a film is an aberration for me,’’ he says. “Cinema has to be more real. When I talk of pushing the envelope, I don’t mean that cinema should be more violent or sexually explicit. What I mean is that we must raise the bar and tackle slice-of-life subjects and characters.’’ He is okay, not ecstatic, being a Bollywood product, but to him, “Bollywood is still a genre. It is unfair to call all Hindi films as Bollywood. Hindi cinema goes far beyond what it typically is classified as Bollywood.’’

If there’s one thing he abhors about his current ‘hot’ status —it is constantly being under media surveillance. “Tabloid journalism is at its peak in India,’’ regrets the actor. “The press is very intrusive. It doesn’t feel the need to crosscheck anything with an actor before speculating.” He feels whether it is his love life or his price, everything is discussed in a cavalier fashion, and that is something he won’t stand for. “I guard my privacy very fiercely,’’ says Abhay. “I can’t talk about who I am dating because the women I date, guard their privacy even more than I do.’’ And, India’s rock star film actor threatens that if his New York jaunts get too much publicity, he will still fly out of the country every six months. “Only the destination will be different,’’ he says.