What's common between Amrish Puri, Pran and Gulshan Grover? Besides being prolific actors and well-read people, each of them started their career and build on it playing the negative guy – the baddie – in their films. Amrish Puri became famous playing Mogambo in 'Mr India', while Gulshan Grover had an onscreen reputation for being the serial rapist.But later on, there was a change. While an ageing Amrish Puri took to playing fatherly roles and positive characters in the films – 'Taal', 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge' and 'Pardes' being prominent ones – Gulshan Grover never changed his track, even while being a part of a comedy caper. The reason for this wasn't that the actor wasn't offered any positive roles, but a thought over, and carefully planned strategy where he wanted to retain the image of a baddie. To be seen in yet another negative role of Pasha in 'Agent Vinod', the actor admits, “I purposely refused the roles where I would get to play the hero or the positive character. It was a very conscious effort to build that brand, that image of a baddie. I'm a trained actor, and studied commerce, hence every role I play is out of a thoughtful process and I'm glad that today I've built that brand for myself, and people have loved me and hope they continue to do so.”
Being bad isn't that bad after all, but it does need too much of planning.