Away from jingoistic screenplays, Sunny Deol is a nice, soft-spoken guy, given to smiling shyly.Sitting in his fifth floor penthouse office, he is the picture of calm even as he is uncharacteristically critical of himself, the films being made and the industry as a whole.

Are you reclusive or just shy?

Basically, I’m shy and have always been like this. People usually take my shyness as having a big ego and being snobbish but the truth is that when I don’t know how to deal with certain situations, I’d rather just move away from them.

Even when it comes to promoting films, I can’t rush around like the younger lot of stars. They want to do everything at the same time. But the fact is that instead of concentrating on their talent they waste their time on frivolous things, like how they are looking and PR stuff.

What is your idea of a holiday?

A place where you just are free, where time is not the issue. My kind of holiday is when I can unwind without knowing that I am unwinding.

So how many holidays do you take?

(laughs) I don’t get many but whenever I get some time, I switch off. I feel more relaxed when I am out of Mumbai especially in places where there aren’t many people around.

What’s keeping you busy here?

I am concentrating on learning from my mistakes. Basically everything that I am doing right now, be it writing, production work or acting, I am trying to work on instinct and not give in to a technical view of it. The most difficult thing in the industry right now is getting finance to get things moving and that’s what I am doing. Vijayta films (the Deol’s production concern) always did what it wanted to without giving in to market dictates and that’s what I want to achieve again.

What are these mistakes you are learning from?

It’s more a shortcoming actually. I trust everybody and if someone says something about me, I don’t retaliate. Sometimes this affects me financially too. Now I am learning to address all this legally and not make it into a tamasha, which is something I abhor. Most of the time, I know exactly what’s happening but because I prefer to not say anything the perpetrator thinks I am a foolish man who doesn’t know what’s happening. Anyway, these are my shortcomings and I have to overcome them. (shrugs)

Do you think you could ever do father’s roles?

(laughs) I am not so old. And anyway if there is a 10-12 yr old child, I am a father. But I certainly don’t see myself playing a father like they used to in films earlier. Actually you shouldn’t be asking me this question (laughs), I think I am doing well, people still like me the way I am, and they still want to see me that way.

Do you like the sort of cinema being made currently?

Cinema, right now, stinks. I am not being extra critical about it. I don’t mean every film is bad. But in general it is awful. Years ago, my dad and other actors used to do many films at a time, and they used to do three to four shifts a day. The directors would do two to three films at a time and the movies took three to four years to complete and release. But they used to be much better than the films made now where we do one film at a time and spend so much time and energy on them because we are spending it on idiots. We don’t have directors who can control the actors and we don’t have actors who trust the script and don’t have producers who make a script, they only make proposals. It is sad, really sad. Then we say we are progressing. I don’t see any progress.

But there is something called the new age cinema …

Every few years we have a new age cinema. To me, there is nothing new in it. It is basically about how the new generation looks at it. All the elements are the same, it is still about romance, hatred and everything else that has always been there. All that is new is the technology. I remember when I joined the industry my dad wanted me to learn Urdu (it was vey difficult). Now I see that the younger generation doesn’t even know Hindi. It’s all about Hinglish. I wonder what the language will be after five years.

You are directing a film called The Man. Is the ‘man’ in it like ‘man’ in say Batman, Superman, Spiderman?

Currently it’s just a working title. It will be a nice film, can’t talk about it much right now because it is difficult to explain the genre of the film. I promise, it will be a nice film, it will be a commercial film. To me, commercial is you see a movie, get intoxicated and come out with a hangover. And no, it’s not a superhero movie.

How do you manage to keep your children away from exposure in the press?

In the same way as my dad kept us away. Generations come and go but values don’t change. Fortunately, it’s been the same for us. I have two sons, Karan (18) who is called Rocky at home and Rajveer (15).

Have they ever expressed a desire to join films?

I am sure they will actually.

Do they look like you?

They will obviously have some resemblance.

What do you think of the way Abhay, your cousin, has been conducting his career? It has been totally different from a normal mainstream actor.

He is the kind of boy who does what he likes to do and sticks to that. Somehow, I can relate to that. I did what I wanted to do. Arjun, Betaab, Yateem, Dacait were all movies which most of the actors would not want to do. I would always advise all actors to do what they actually want to do and what they believe in. They should love acting and cinema. It should not be about fashion parades, and six pack abs. Not that you shouldn’t have six pack abs, but it’s not the only thing.

If Gadar released today, would it be an equally big hit?

Even now when it runs on television or anywhere, people sit down and watch it. So I am sure it would have done well now as well too. The emotion in the film will always connect. It was basically a film about family, togetherness. It was a film about humanity. People could not digest its success because Anil Sharma is not considered that great a director by some media and industry people. Though I would say, he is one of the great directors of the times. That was one reason why the movie didn’t get that standing which it deserved. But the public gave it what it deserved. I don’t think any film can do that kind of business. People just wanted to see it over and over again. It just touched so many chords.

We don’t have directors who can control the actors and we don’t have actors who trust the script and we don’t have producers who make a script, they only make proposals