Abhay Deol was recently in New York to launch “Mela” a new entertainment service with Indian TV Channels and Movies (in HD) I’ve got pictures and an exclusive with Mr. D himself :) Enjoy! xoxo

Abhay Deol, Mela Launch in New York City

MM: Hi Abhay! The last time I saw you in the flesh we were at Paul and Caoillin’s Wedding in Goa! How’s it Going?

AD: Yes I remember seeing you at the wedding, did you stay on for long after that? Paul’s back, well he was a few weeks ago but the guy is constantly on the move. That was a nice wedding wasn’t it? I haven’t had a week off work since then!

MM: Before I ask you anything else I have to say I totally loved ZNMD, epic! What was your fav part? And did anything funny happen off screen on set? (Guessing lots since you three Mantal Bwyoz were together all the time!)

AD: My fav scene in the film is when Farhan Akhtar meets his father and confronts him. My fav part of the movie is the sky diving sequence and the bull run sequence. Oh, and when Natasha show’s up and I have Laila in my arms! Fun on set? Well the entire process was awesome, I don’t think “fun” can fully describe the experience. We traveled all through Spain, ate lots of exotic food, drank whenever we got the opportunity, sometimes we cribbed about the long hours of work, and I tried to use my charms on Zoya but most times that didn’t work. So we ate and drank some more while working really hard!

Abhay Deol in New York

MM: How did you end up in NY for this launch? What’s the channel going to be like?

AD: Well Pooja hooked me up for the launch of Mela. She felt that I fit the profile of the product and so spoke to the team about me. They liked the idea, I was already in Toronto for the MMM festival. I showed up, they briefed me of the product, I had an idea of it already but after the brief I understood it much better and realized the potential of Mela to fight piracy and give a distribution platform to all films from the Indian subcontinent in the U.S. There’s a lot more to Mela, it’s consumer friendly design, the cheap price for subscription, the High Def quality etc etc. But it was the first two things I mentioned that excited me most.

Mela Press Launch

MM: What are you working on now?

AD: Right now I’m gearing up for my next film, the working title of which is Shaadi of the Dead with Navdeep Singh. It’s about Zombie’s at a Punjabi wedding. Also, my film Shanghai with Dibakar Banerjee is in post production and by December I will get into the marketing of that film. I’m not looking to shoot anything else anytime soon, but I’m reading scripts, planning on taking it easy after Shanghai’s release.

MM: You’re dating now but people love to marry you off and speculate, what do you make of it and would you rather they just left that bit alone?

AD: HA HA your absolutely right, they do marry me off too soon! I’m cool with speculation, it’s part of the job, what does get a bit frustrating is when respectable papers write off speculation as news. It makes me respect them less and I don’t like that. Ironic because I’ve had many journalist’s tell me (essentially at the beginning of my career) that it’s the celeb’s who give them stories because they want the publicity. Now I have journalist’s tell me they need to sensationalize their news to fight stiff competition from the many papers that are in circulation today. It’s come a full circle and the table’s have turned. If something affects me, I just take a deep breath and tell myself to have compassion!

Abhay Deol

MM: What’s next Bollywood-wise?

AD: Refer to answer 4! I guess answer 4 is actually for question 6 so I will answer question 4 at number 6. Here goes – I’m working on answering your questions right now!

MM: What’s your all-time fav movie scene? Bollywood/Hollywood?

AD: Hmm…………… I don’t have favorites, especially when it comes down to scenes. I do have films that have inspired me, and I aspire to do work that could come close to the brilliance of those films. The Shinning, Dr. Strange Love, Blade Runner, Brazil, Talk To Her, Children Of Heaven, the list goes on. Most of it is foreign stuff. I guess I got influenced by world cinema at an early age.

Abhay Deol

MM: Describe yourself in 3 words.

AD: I am Hungry…………….?

MM: What do you like to do when you chill out with your boys?

AD: I like to go sky diving. It calms my nerves……

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

MM: Can you tell me one thing nobody really knows about you?

AD: If I did that then everybody would know it! It’s good to hold back a little, keep the mystery alive. There, maybe that gave a little something away.

MM: So are you finally Tweeting?

AD: I’M NOT ON TWITTER! Actually I am on Facebook and my PR team handling my face book started to tweet my texts from there. I told them to stop because I was writing for Facebook not Twitter so they politely listened. At least I hope so, unless there has been a tweet of mine recently. But then again, there are imposters on Twitter too.

Abhay Deol

MM: Thanks Abhay, you’ve been super sweet to answer all my questions so diligently, love that :) Oh and the last time I saw Paul he was at the Mercedes New SLK Class Launch looking happy shiny :) xoxo
P.S. More pix of the Mela launch here.

Caoilinn and Paul McGlade at the Mercedes SLK launch party @ Zinc