In his second innings in the movies, Bobby Deol is offering us quite a few surprises. If the senior actor shone in The Ba***ds of Bollywood barely two months ago, he threw a curveball by headlining Anurag Kashyap’s Bandar. Now, it looks like he’s got another ace up his sleeve. mid-day has exclusively learnt that Deol has been roped in for director Ali Abbas Zafar’s next, which will be led by Ahaan Panday of Saiyaara fame and Sharvari. From what we’ve heard, the senior actor will play an adversary to Panday in the yet-untitled action drama.
A trade source, however, points out that Deol isn’t the antagonist in the story. “It will be incorrect to call him the villain. His character is in an authoritative position in the film, but there is more than meets the eye. As the story progresses, Bobby’s character is shown having grey shades, which influences his dynamics with the hero,” shares the source.
Ali Abbas Zafar
A string of negative roles has come Deol’s way in the past few years — from the game-changing Animal (2023) to Aashram and Kanguva (2024). In the upcoming Alpha too, he will be seen as the antagonist to Alia Bhatt and Sharvari’s spies. The source tells us that Zafar wanted to avoid showing the senior actor in a similar light in his next.
“Ali and producer Aditya Chopra were certain from the start that it can’t be a menacing and an all-black role as Bobby has done such parts. The director crafted a larger-than-life persona, keeping Bobby in mind, but at the same time, gave the character personal motivations and shades of grey. Bobby came on board only a week ago.” Soon, Zafar will head to England for the film’s recce (Queen’s city calling showbiz’s new prince, Nov 5). If things go as planned, the project will roll in the first quarter of 2026.