QUICK-CHANGE ARTIST: Devgan handles character shifts in films with ease"Malik bhai," a passerby calls out. A lanky star, sunglasses framed by a thick mop of hair, exits a white Lexus Land Cruiser, turns around and grins languidly. Mumbai hasn't got itself a new don. It's just Ajay Devgan acknowledging approval from the audience for his role as the ice-cool mafia boss inCompany."If it isn't Malik, it's Bhagat Singh," he smiles, referring to his second alter ego. While there's a faint buzz in the film industry of a second national award for his performance inThe Legend of Bhagat Singh(TLOBS), the biggest award, he says, has been the response to his work.He has been busy this year. In betweenCompanyandTLOBS, Devgan found time to play Aishwarya Rai's canny lover in David Dhawan'sHum Kissi Se Kam Nahin. "Not since Amitabh Bachchan have we had an actor capable of playing such a repertoire of roles," says trade analyst Taran Adarsh.But what is Devgan like off-duty? "What you see is what you get," wife Kajol chortles, "a family man down to the core." He does not attend film parties, never carries work home and has far fewer friends than his gregarious wife.Cinematographer Sameer Arya is one of his few industry buddies. He doesn't let professional disputes come in the way of his friendships. The battle of the Bhagat Singhs did not affect his bonding with childhood friend Bobby Deol. Both actors even travelled together for the world premieres of their films.And though he assiduously cultivates a far-from-the-madding-crowd James Dean image, he does occasionally let it slip. Like when he teamed up with known prankster Aamir Khan to slip itching powder down Dalip Tahil's collar on the sets of 1998's Ishq.Mahesh Bhatt, who directed him in Zakhm, says Devgan lives for the moment. "Unlike Anil Kapoor and Aamir Khan, he isn't paralysed by the need to work for posterity. Nor is he frightened of making mistakes." Like the disastrous Raju Chacha two years ago on which Devgan lavished over Rs 30 crore. "I blame only myself for the film," he shrugs.He handles character shifts with ease - a trait, says Bhatt, that comes with his ability to listen. "He's like this empty cup into which a director can pour a character." Director Ram Gopal Varma agrees, but he warns of high audience expectations from his forthcoming films. "It's time he did challenging roles."Apart from films like Chori Chori, there's little danger of Devgan drifting into the action mould in which he got stuck for five years after his debut in Phool Aur Kaante (1991). He trains in his personal gym on the roof of his apartment, but confesses he hasn't done a leg split (a prerequisite for action movies) in five years. As for his average looks, Devgan says he's never let it bother him just as he hasn't let his bull run this year affect him. "My head is still on my shoulders," he says and almost echoes Kajol when he vows to do only sensible roles. HEAD HONCHO: Devgan, with Manisha Koirala, as a mafia top gun in Company"An interesting role is often a big reason for me to go to work each day," he says. For the next few months, he has plenty of reasons to do that. He leads a heroic charge against Pakistani bunkers in J.P. Dutta's star-studded war epicLOC(Line of Control), has supernatural visitations in Varma's Bhoot, is the drugged convict with a deadly secret in Harry Baweja's Qayamatand a schizophrenic in Anees Bazmee's Deewangee -a smorgasbord of roles that most actors would give a right arm and leg for."He's beyond scripts now," says Baweja. "Roles will have to be written for him." Which is why the trade calls him a solid box-office proposition and his fee of around Rs 1.75 crore per film is rivalled only by Hrithik Roshan and the Khan trio.But the industry wasn't always this kind to Devgan. At the start of his career, he was dismissed as a "poor man's Sunil Dutt". He was the son of Veeru Devgan, one of Bollywood's best fight choreographers. But he wasn't part of the acting aristocracy. Worse, trade pundits predicted doom for Phool Aur Kaante, lined up for release with Amitabh Bachchan in Ramesh Sippy's Akayla, Anil Kapoor in Yash Chopra's Lamhe and Salman Khan in Love. The three bombed. Skirting the box-office debris was Devgan, riding into public memory in dramatic style, feet splayed across twin motorbikes.For Veeru Devgan, who came to Mumbai from Amritsar as a starry-eyed 13-year-old, it was like a dream come true. He swears he had a premonition - a decidedly celluloid one - when he peeped into his Yashica camera to see a nine-month-old Ajay crane his neck and stare fixedly into the lens. "One look into his eyes and I yelled out to my wife. I knew he was destined to be a great actor," he says proudly. An apartment loaded with gadgets was set aside to see his son go through a gauntlet of acting, riding and dance instructors. For a while it seemed the commerce graduate from Mumbai's Mithibhai College would turn director - as a teenager, he scripted, shot and directed his friends in home videos.But then Devgan is a quick-change artist. Close to five years after being straitjacketed in the action-hero routine, things changed. He played a pickpocket opposite Kajol in his home production Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha. An underplayed performance in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam saw him steal the thunder from Salman Khan. Another intense performance in Zakhm got him the national award for Best Actor in 1998.It's the brooding intensity that prompted TLOBS director Rajkumar Santoshi, who directed him in Lajja, to cast Devgan as Bhagat Singh. It was enough to make Santoshi fall out with friend Sunny Deol who wanted to cast brother Bobby in the role. Extreme impact. That's exactly the kind of impression Devgan has on audiences too.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Jul 1, 2002--- ENDS ---
