Gulshan Devaiah: A Film Doesn’t Need ₹500 Crore to Succeed
Gulshan Devaiah, ahead of Little Thomas, says Bollywood's violence wave is an illusion and success should be judged by ROI, not a ₹500 crore gross.
Gulshan Devaiah has built a reputation as one of Bollywood’s most watchable on-screen villains—Kulasekhara in Kantara: Chapter 1 and Four-Cut Atmaram in Guns & Gulaabs among them. With Little Thomas arriving in cinemas on October 23, he is now pushing back on a different story: the belief that violent, high-octane entertainment has taken over the industry.
A family film in a loud season
Little Thomas, directed by Kaushal Oza and starring Rasika Dugal and Hridansh Parekh, follows a curious boy who desperately wants a younger brother. It is the kind of film often described as a gap-filler in a market crowded with action spectacles.
Gulshan sees that framing as incomplete. In an interview with Hindustan Times, he said different kinds of films have always shared screen space. Mass entertainers draw large crowds for obvious reasons, he argued, and their enormous box-office returns get highlighted so heavily that they create an illusion that the whole industry is moving in one direction.
The 1970s parallel
His historical example is direct. During the 1970s and 1980s, Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man connected with the masses while Amol Palekar’s average young man thrived with the middle class. Both coexisted, and both mattered.
India has immense socioeconomic diversity, he said, so different types of films that appeal to different audiences can coexist.
He also pushed back on the idea that a film must cross a massive box-office threshold to count. The smarter yardstick, he suggested, is the return on investment ratio.
Why the box-office noise misleads
For producers and audiences, the lesson is simple: judge a project by what it returns against its cost, not by whether it enters a headline-grabbing club.
- Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man and Amol Palekar’s average young man once served different audiences side by side.
- 12th Fail became the most successful film of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 35-year career without following a blockbuster formula.
- Little Thomas opens on October 23 as a family entertainer amid louder, action-heavy releases.
Gulshan added that nobody really knows what will work. He pointed to the surprise theatrical run of Hanuman Ansh and the unexpected success of films like Queen and Vicky Donor as proof.
No master plan, just taste
The actor said his move towards lighter, family-oriented projects was not a grand strategy. He had grown a little tired of negative roles and made minor adjustments in his choices. The Little Thomas script felt sweet and innocent, and it connected him to his own childhood.
Gulshan said he wants to keep his filmography varied. He enjoys mindless entertainers, hyper-masculine action when the mood strikes, and poignant, thought-provoking films. He is also stepping into horror with Anarth, despite previously saying he preferred to avoid the genre.
For now, Little Thomas gives families a theatrical option that does not need to be the loudest film in the room to count.
Source: Hindustan Times
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