Kavita Awaasthi (HINDUSTAN TIMES; October 24, 2019)

With the Prabhas-starrer, Saaho, that starred Chunky Panday in the role of the antagonist, the actor realised the thrill of playing a negative character on screen. “So many people from the industry texted me regarding the performance. People, who I had lost touch with, called and the way they reacted to Devraaj meant a lot. I feel I was lucky to get that role,” shares Chunky.

But it was a call from his senior Shakti Kapoor — who made his entire career out of negative roles — that surprised Chunky. “I was thrilled to get a call from Shakti, who said he loved my performance in Saaho. I started my career and gave my first shot with him in Aag Hi Aag (1987). I gave 36 retakes. Though he was a senior when I started, we are good friends today. The body of work he has done is commendable. I have always looked up to him. Actors like Shakti, Paresh Rawal, Kader Khan and Boman Irani have done a variety of roles from negative to comedy to character roles to serious ones. I always wanted that kind of spectrum in my portfolio,” he says.

Talking about his vast career, Chunky says it was “like a honeymoon”. He initially did modelling, sold used cars and even used to go for auditions and dance practice. Then he got his first film Aag Hi Aag which became a huge hit and led to a string of offers. “Suddenly, I had so many films but I also got stereotyped into multi-starrer films. I didn’t mind doing them as they were fun. I learned a lot working with talented actors like Govinda, Paresh bhai, Shakti, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharam ji, Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt and others. Later, I don’t know what went wrong. From 1987 to 1993 was the best run of my life. Then, the offers dried up. I had to take a sabbatical and did Bangladeshi films. I returned in 2003 and had to ask people for work. Filmmakers Harry Baweja, Ram Gopal Varma and Subhash Ghai gave me films and restarted my career. Now, to return with diverse roles and so much love is precious. For 32 years as an actor, my body of work has been less. I am happy to be doing roles that make a mark,” he concludes.