Gulshan Devaiah has been a part of the industry for more than 14 years. The actor had three releases right in his debut year in 2011. He received a lot of acclaim for the recent Kantara Chapter 1 directed by Rishab Shetty. His web-series Perfect Family received a lot of praise too. Devaiah now has a project with Netflix also starring R. Madhavan coming up and another title produced by Samantha Ruth Prabhu.
In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, the actor spoke about working with
Rishab Shetty, Manoj Pahwa, the personal setbacks of 2025, and saving himself from getting stereotyped as an actor.
Edited excerpts from the interview
How will you describe the year 2025?
It’s just another year. Professionally, I think it’s been a good year. The past few years starting from 2023 have been very good. ‘23, ‘24 was also good. ‘25 is also good. Personally, I think lots of setbacks. (laughs) I lost my cat. A couple of my dear friends died, one very bizarrely. My dad met with a road accident. I also fell ill a lot. (laughs) I don’t know. I don’t particularly think it was, like, ultra special or anything like that, but it’s okay.
Your debut year 2011 was also great since you had three releases. What would you like to say about that?
I think it’s more special because I was just starting off at that point of time. I was really new. And then my first three films that came out, they were all, like, reviewed very well for me. So I think in terms of, like, emotionally, I think, 2011 will always remain engraved in my mind as a very special feeling. I was also scared. It was also very scary because I was like, “I don’t know what to do.”
I always wanted to do this. Here I am doing it, but then I’m like, I was like all of these people coming and meeting me and shaking my hands and, like, I was like, I felt really scared.
How did
Kantara happen? How did this collaboration, this blockbuster collaboration with Rishab happen?
In 2019, he got in touch with me through another friend, and then that time we met, and he had pitched a couple of ideas for a movie. So he always wanted to do something with me, I guess. And when I met him, I really liked him. I had not seen any of his films, but I really liked his energy and his passion that he had for telling stories and making cinema. So I think it was meant to be. So I kind of knew when he announced when the official announcement came for Kantara. So we had not discussed or anything, but I had an instinct that he’ll probably call me, and he did.
So what are the advantages when an actor is also directing the film? Do you feel it helps the other actors around him?
I don’t know. I think it’s actually a disadvantage because your responsibilities are more. And to be able to manage something like that is incredibly difficult, and I think only very few people can do it, and Rishab is one of them. So I don’t see it as an advantage at all because it’s a very specialized job. An actor focuses on acting, and a director focuses on directing. And a director has additional duties also…
…like, you know, in terms of, like, dealing with the producer, controlling the set and a lot of things are there. Most actors don’t have to worry about any of such things, scheduling and all that. So I don’t think it’s an advantage at all. I think it’s a disadvantage and it’s quite incredible how
Rishab has managed to do all of those things.
What were the responses that you received for your character in the film?
I had a lot of fun. I got along really well with everybody. Jayaram sir is a blast. Like, he’s so funny. And of course I’ve seen him in movies where he used to be a leading man. He comes from having done like I think 200 films as a leading man in Malayalam. He transitioned into playing comedy roles in Tamil cinema and all that. So I knew him. He’s a blast.
He’s really good fun to just hang around with. And I obviously I had a preexisting, like, tuning with Rishab, and I got along really well with everybody. So it was nice. I really enjoyed myself. The only time it was difficult I think was the horse riding sequences because I’m not an expert level rider. I’m a very no- in, entry level horse rider. So I can do really basic stuff. And it can be very tricky sometimes with horses because they are quite sensitive creatures in order to control them and all that.
So they were well-trained horses. They were all Mumbai horses, and I trained on the actual horse that I rode. I trained on horse only most of… I mean, at least half of my training was on that horse. Otherwise, it was all a fun time. I had a lot of fun. I wasn’t particularly thinking of how it’s going to turn out, whether people will like it or not or something like that. I really enjoyed creating Kulashekara, who’s actually quite useless.
Talking about
Perfect Family, on one hand you have the larger-than-life world of Kantara, and then we get to see a real, a realistic world of Perfect Family. How did you manage this transition?
I think for me it’s great. I can’t really speak on behalf of other people. I don’t know. I think I like to explore different genres and different characters. And sometimes I also explore genres that I don’t like, like- horror, and I am doing a horror film now with Dibakar Banerjee.
It has been a great year for Manoj Pahwa as well. How would you describe your chemistry with him?
I have tremendous respect for Manoj Pahwa from a role that he did in a TV serial called Sea Hawks. And it’s really unfortunate that he generally does only… of course I know him from Hum Log. He was really young at that point of time, so was I. So it was like 1987. He’s been around a lot and he’s a terrific dramatic actor I sometimes feel that he’s very under-utilized as a dramatic actor and because of his appearance or his image, he’s generally used in comedy roles and he’s embraced it. He’s like, “Oh, it’s okay, I’ll make the best of what comes my way.” But he’s a terrific dramatic actor. He can make you laugh and he can make you cry also in the same scene.
And he’s incredible. I have so much admiration for him, both the Pahwa couple, but I’ve seen them at work and they’re both incredibly experienced and incredibly well-versed and skilled actors. And Sea Hawks was also made when Anubhav Sinha, where he is the villain, Manoj Pahwa plays the villain and he is terrific at it. So I sometimes feel that little bit out of the box casting possibilities are there with Manoj Pahwa which many people don’t really explore.
How have you saved yourself from getting stereotyped?
It is my decision. So that kind of clarity I think I was lucky, I was fortunate that I had really early on. After Shaitaan, I got many roles which were very similar to that. The same thing happened after Ram Leela, Hunterrr, and Hate Story- Sex addict and a slew of erotic films. But I’ll just have to wait for opportunities and again, I’m very fortunate that work kept coming and different things kept happening. Like Hunterrr happened, it was totally left of field for me, like nobody would have thought that.
I have a project coming out with R. Madhavan for Netflix. I have said no to a lot of projects that went on to be landmark roles for other actors, but I had my own reasons of not doing them. I am not thinking about the results and all of those things right now. If good things are meant to happen it will happen but I want to do my best and that’s the satisfaction I want to have at the end of the day that I did my best and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you have a shit day and you have to accept that and say like, “Yeah, today was shit.” I just had one like two days ago. (laughs) I had a shit day. (laughs)
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