Dulquer Salmaan reveals he was 'pushed around' on sets during his early days in Bollywood: 'I couldn't find chairs to sit'

Dulquer Salmaan

Dulquer Salmaan is a known face in the southern film industry but when he decided to try his hand at doing Hindi films, he also had his fair share of struggles.

Despite being a renowned name down south and the son of Malayalam superstar Mammootty, he had a hard time getting people to take him seriously and had to act like a star just to get basic respect.

Dulquer Salmaan talked about his time working in Bollywood at a recent roundtable discussion hosted by The Hollywood Reporter India.

He said that the culture there was very different from what he was used to in Malayalam cinema. The actor, who made his Hindi debut in 2018 with Karwaan and then appeared in The Zoya Factor, said that on early Bollywood sets he and his small team were often ignored and literally "pushed around."

Dulquer said that not having a status made it hard to do simple things like find a chair or space behind the monitor.

He said that to deal with it, he had to pretend to be 'a big star,' even though he didn't have that kind of reputation in the Hindi industry yet.

"People don't see you as important if you don't look successful, like if you show up in a fancy car or with a lot of people," he said, pointing out that how people see you seems to matter more than how you are.

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The actor said that this was different from his experiences in the Malayalam film world, where the culture of production is usually more straightforward and down-to-earth.

Dulquer says that crews there don't often use big groups of people or fancy things.

Instead, they often shoot in everyday places with simple plans for changing or taking breaks.

Dulquer said that looking back, the experience taught him an important lesson about how perception and ego can affect filmmaking, which isn't always the same as talent or professionalism.

He stressed that he doesn't have a bad opinion of any industry, even though things didn't go well at first. He just sees that film sets work differently in different parts of India.

Dulquer now has a presence all over India and works in many different film industries. As he builds his career, he continues to balance commercial success with professionalism.