Dulquer Salmaan: The crossover hero, the multilingual star

Dulquer Salmaan

Every big budget film coming out of the south Indian industries these days aspires to be a pan-Indian film. The market has never been so ripe for south Indian stars and directors to make headway in the Hindi-speaking belt. In this rush to capture new audiences and markets, however, Dulquer Salmaan’s approach stands out. Originally from the Malayalam film industry, Dulquer Salmaan, popularly called DQ, in 2022 alone has had releases in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi — and none of them dubbed films.

Being the son of superstar Mammootty, most would have expected Dulquer to be launched by a proven director in a big-budget film where he could show off his talents. But the actor chose Srinath Rajendran’s debut film Second Show (2012) to be his launch vehicle — a crime action film with several newcomers. His first scene in the film, too, is devoid of any fanfare. He’s simply a character walking in the rain and striking up a conversation with someone at a bus stop.

Though unusual, this low key entry into Malayalam cinema was, in retrospect, a clever move. It gave Dulquer a chance to forge his own path instead of triggering comparisons with his superstar father. His second film, Ustad Hotel (2012), saw him play the role of Faizi, an aspiring chef who gets a chance to meet with his estranged grandfather (the amazing Thilakan). Paired with Nithya Menen, Dulquer was effortlessly charming in the role; he possessed a kind of urban sophistication that Malayalam male stars rarely had. Directed by Anwar Rasheed and written by Anjali Menon, Ustad Hotel had everything going for it — fun, food and the right amount of heart to make you revisit it every now and then.

This was a period when Malayalam cinema was witnessing the emergence of new stars on the horizon. There was Nivin Pauly, who had made his debut with Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Malarvaadi Arts Club (2010), and Fahadh Faasil who had disappeared from the scene after his debut film in 2002 but was steadily making a comeback. Malayalam cinema was going through an experimental phase with young, energetic directors who were looking to explore new themes and techniques of storytelling. This meant that the "star son" tag didn’t become an albatross around Dulquer’s neck; he was able to find scripts that offered him the scope to perform and leave an impact on the audience.

These three actors came together in Anjali Menon’s Bangalore Days in 2014, a casting coup that made the film an instant favourite with young people. Focused on three cousins — played by Dulquer, Nivin and Nazriya Nazim
Indian actress — the film traced their lives in the city of Bengaluru which has always been portrayed in Malayalam cinema as the land of dreams. Dulquer — an automobile fan and collector in real life — played biker boy Aju, who has to make peace with his dysfunctional family and learn to express his feelings to the love of his life, the wheelchair bound, sprightly RJ Sarah (Parvathy Thiruvothu). It would have been easy to play Aju with a showy flamboyance and heroism, but Dulquer made the part-brooding, part-rebellious and part-vulnerable Aju come alive without erasing any of the shades to the character.

Speaking about the film in an interview, Anjali had said, the cast of the film was on the verge of stardom when she made it. “All of them were sort of, still turning that corner. I think with Bangalore Days, many of us, including myself, turned that corner. And after that, the kind of projects we’ve done, the sort of scale has been different for all of the actors. I think it really upped their game after that.” The film made around Rs 50 crore, and was a big hit in Chennai and Hyderabad, too.

The year following Bangalore Days proved to be even bigger for Dulquer. He had made his Tamil debut with the bilingual Vaayai Moodi Pesavum (2014) already, but 2015 saw him work with veteran director Mani Ratnam in OK Kanmani. Once again acting with Nithya Menen, Dulquer played a young man with commitment issues in a film that examined the idea of marriage and live-in relationships in modern times. It was a lightweight film buoyed by AR Rahman’s terrific music, the lead pair’s crackling chemistry, and Prakash Raj and Leela Samson’s significant presence.

Having done a part of his schooling in Chennai, Dulquer was fluent in Tamil and spoke the language without a pronounced Malayali accent. This made it easy for the audience to accept the actor and OK Kanmani became a blockbuster. That same year, he had Charlie in Malayalam — a film about a mysterious young man who wears his heart on his sleeve and a young woman (Parvathy) who is intrigued enough to follow in his footsteps. Literally. Directed by Martin Prakkat, the colourful, lighthearted film became super popular among young people and gave Dulquer another big hit.

Kammatipaadam (2016), directed by Rajeev Ravi, is probably among the most challenging films that Dulquer has done. The story spanning several decades is on how the urbanisation of Kochi happened at the cost of depriving the Dalit people of their land. Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap, known for the gritty Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), hailed it as “one of the best gangster/brotherhood films from India”. Though it was Vinayakan who walked away with Best Actor for the film in the Kerala State Film Awards, Kammatipaadam was a turning point in Dulquer’s career. It showed that he could do more than just romance.

But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Dulquer. Some of his films like Bejoy Nambiar’s experimental anthology Solo, in which he played four roles, were rejected by the audience. His Hindi films Karwaan (2018) and The Zoya Factor (2019) did not do well either. Still, the failures haven’t dented his enthusiasm to do different kinds of cinema. Though he didn’t know any Telugu, he gamely played second fiddle to Keerthy Suresh in Mahanati (2018), a biopic on actor Savithri. Dulquer played the role of Gemini Ganesan in the film — a figure who was both hero and villain in Savithri’s life. Four years later, he did another Telugu film — Sita Ramam (2022), a period romance drama that made over Rs 100 crore at the box office. That’s no mean feat for an outsider in the industry to pull off, especially when Malayalam cinema isn’t as popular in the Telugu states as is Tamil.

Dulquer turned producer with Varane Avayshyamund in 2020, a surprising film about a middle-aged woman in search of love. Directed by Anoop Sathyan and starring Shobana and Suresh Gopi in the lead, Dulquer played a supporting role in the film. His company, Wayfarer Films, also produced the hugely successful and controversial film Kurup (2021) which is based on the real life criminal Sukumara Kurup. Directed by Srinath Rajendran in whose film he had debuted, it was clear that Dulquer relished playing the glib Kurup on screen.

In fact, Dulquer now seems keen to explore negative shades and distance himself from playing the lover boy. In his Hindi film with R Balki, Chup: Revenge of the Artist (2022), he played a serial killer who murders film critics. The film opened to packed shows (thanks to the lower ticket-pricing) and made Dulquer a more familiar face in the Hindi-speaking states. That will certainly help when Guns & Gulaabs, his Netflix Hindi web-series with The Family Man directors Raj & DK, comes out.

His forthcoming gangster film King of Kotha with Abhilash Joshiy has already set up major expectations — not only because of the genre but because his fans in Malayalam have missed seeing him on the big screen. In an industry where his colleagues are constantly evolving and changing the rules of stardom, Dulquer has found his own way to keep things interesting. This is a star who could have it all on a platter if only he would stick to the familiar, but chooses each time to make things more difficult for himself. And in the process, keeps the audience guessing some more about his next move.