Leonor Varela is every man’s fantasy: Parvin Dabbas
Actor Parvin Dabbas denies any romantic alliance with Chilean-French actress Leonor Varela, with whom he worked in director Russell Mulcahy’s mini-series “The Curse Of King Tut’s Tomb”. But he admits he had some wild parties with her.
“Varela is a gorgeous woman and looking at her, every man’s fantasy. I got along well with her but, sorry, no affair. I did take her and some of the cast members out. Varela and I exchanged our movie CDs and we had some pretty wild parties, but that’s about it,” Parvin told IANS.
“For me working in a foreign production is like any other job but I take great pride in being an Indian actor in a foreign production and showing them that we’re second to none. It’s interesting to dabble in the adventure spectacle genre in Western cinema. I play an Egyptian soldier in this multi-million dollar extravaganza.”
Parvin says Varela was a little apprehensive about who was going to be cast in the role of her boyfriend.
“It was meant to be an Israeli actor Yunan Heikel. She seemed to be relieved after meeting me. And learnt much later into the shoot that I was in ‘Monsoon Wedding’ and that made me really rise in her esteem, something which to tell you quite frankly I didn’t much worry about. I feel sometimes we give too much importance to foreign actors and go out of our way to be nice to them.”
The series was shown on the US television and Parvin has been praised for his work in it.
“My work won me a lot of respect from the actors and the director was quite vocal in his praise for me. It was interesting because Rajasthan doubled up as Egypt while an Indian, that’s me, played an Egyptian soldier. I guess that’s what global cinema is all about.”
Post Mira Nair’s “Monsoon Wedding” Parvin has been caught in crossfire between the East and the West.
“I had to choose between ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ and an Israeli film. I did ‘Khosla…’ because it gave me a chance to get away from my goodie-goodie image and discover some grey shades within my personality, and also to connect with my past,” said Parvin.
Parvin used some of his own experience with his father to play Anupam Kher’s sullen son in “Khosla Ka Ghosla”.
“And to think that the director Dibakar Banerjee didn’t want me initially. He thought I was a good-looking guy and a decent actor, incapable of doing the role of a son who isn’t prone to express his thoughts freely. Little did he know that all sons go through the period of defiance with their fathers.”
Parvin’s other international assignment is NRI director Kruti Majumdar’s “The Memsahib”, which moves into another era and aura.
“It’s a period film that we shot in Gujarat. I play an Indian maharaja. It’s doing the festival rounds and won honourable mention at the Dances With Films festival in Santa Monica. There was also a review out on ‘The Memsahib’ in ‘Variety’ and it singled me out as the stand out actor. But my first choice will always be Hindi films.
“Ever since I did ‘Monsoon Wedding’, the offers from abroad have kept coming in. But it’s important for me to get a grip over here. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to push hard for assignments in Mumbai. I believe that’s an essential prerequisite for any wannabe in Bollywood. Sorry, I can’t bow and scrape.”
Parvin’s career in Bollywood started on a sour note with Sunny Deol’s “Dillagi”.
“I was supposed to play the main villain. But that didn’t happen. One of those instances of missed opportunities that I’ve become used to. I was offered Revathy’s ‘Phir Milenge’, which I couldn’t do because I was busy elsewhere. But I’m very proud of the work I’ve done in ‘Monsoon Wedding’ and now ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’.”
Parvin has acquired the reputation of being a snob.
“I take my time opening up to people anyway and like to treat them normally as I would anyone else. Some of them take that as attitude especially since they have the red carpet being laid out for them by everyone else, but after a couple of days they realise it’s not so.”
— IANS
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