Dulquer Salmaan: A period setting lends scope for more drama

Dulquer Salmaan discusses his surprising success in Telugu cinema, his new film Lucky Baskhar, and his passion for period dramas.

“At the start of my career, if anyone had told me that I would receive such love from the Telugu audience, I would not have believed it. The acceptance has been surprising and shocking in equal measure,” says actor-producer Dulquer Salmaan. In his new Telugu film, Lucky Baskhar directed by Venky Atluri, releasing in theatres on October 31, Dulquer will portray a middle class man named Baskhar who indulges in banking fraud to meet the financial needs of his family. Dulquer is also distributing KA, the Telugu period drama starring Kiran Abbavaram and releasing the same day, in Malayalam.

During this interview at the Annapurna Studios Annexe, Hyderabad, Dulquer reminisces how opportunities from Tamil and Hindi cinema came his way after Ustad Hotel, his second Malayalam film, in 2012. Growing up in Chennai and fluent in the language, Tamil cinema was part of his scheme of things. “There were also inquiries from Hindi cinema.” The surprise came from Telugu — the Savitri biopic Mahanati, followed by the musical romance drama Sita Ramam. He also featured in a cameo in Kalki. Incidentally, all these films, produced by Vyjayanthi Films were period dramas and have fetched Dulquer the tag ‘retro star’.

Dulquer mentions that wherever he travels, he is greeted warmly by the Telugu diaspora. “When I choose Telugu films, I want to make sure that this section of the audience is happy.”

Lucky Baskhar, produced by Sithara Entertainments and directed by Venky Atluri, is set in Bombay, in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Dulquer was drawn to the common man’s story. “When Venky narrated it, it felt like a real-life story. Baskhar has a fixed income and deals with negative cash flow each month. As the sole breadwinner of his family, he supports his ailing father, wife, son and two siblings. There are obligations and unforeseen expenses. I see it as India’s story. A large percentage of our population has a fixed income but random expenses come up.”

The rarely-explored finance fraud backdrop of the story was not enough for Dulquer to give his nod. “I have a strong ‘logic meter’, so I kept questioning Venky; He had done his research and had all the answers,” Dulquer explains, adding that when a story takes a deep dive into a scam, it can turn preachy. “Venky has walked the fine line between entertainment and a human drama.”

Director Hansal Mehta’s Hindi web series Scam 1992 and the iconic Hollywood films The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short were reference points, but Dulquer asserts that Lucky Baskhar is rooted in the Indian milieu and has an original story. “Venky had directed three love stories until then and was eager to break that pattern. During lockdowns, he had to rethink his approach to cinema and was keen to explore a new genre with each film. Sir (Vaathi in Tamil) was the first step, discussing issues in the education sector.”

Baskhar is a character with shades of grey, but Dulquer hopes the audience will see the reasons for his actions and perhaps root for him. When asked how mean and negative the character is, he says, “I cannot reveal much; Baskhar’s actions are justified to an extent. However, he faces the music when he takes things too far.”