(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Em chopra muses on life as a villain in the movies as he releases his biography in dubai.while referring to one of the characters in her novel horrorscape author nenia campbell had written: “she had always found villains more exciting than heroes. they had ambition passion. they made the stories happen. villains didn’t fear death.”“the villains were always ugly in books and movies. necessarily so it seemed. because if they were attractive - if their looks matched their charm and their cunning - they wouldn’t only be dangerous. they would be irresistible.”for many movie lovers villains are more interesting and complex than the heroes. they harm good characters in movies and also terrify us and continue to haunt us much after the movie has ended. but one cannot deny the thrill that their characters provide in the film because they present obstacles that the hero must overcome.one of the most iconic villains of the indian film industry prem chopra was in dubai recently to launch his biography prem naam hai mera... prem chopra which is also a famous dialogue of chopra’s from the movie bobby (1973).prem chopra has done around four hundred films in fifty odd years. he is one of the few actors to have worked for more than five decades from the black and white era to the new millennium. “i had no idea that this line will become synonymous with my name. it’s been 41 years but it is so popular even today. i had no idea at that time” said prem chopra while talking to city times about his journey in the film industry.penned by his daughter rakita chopra the book spans a period dating from the partition of india in 1947 to today. filled with anecdotes from his eventful career in the hindi film industry his phobias his interactions with some of the legends of bollywood as well as his shayari (poetry) the book is a frank account of his life and times. several known names from the hindi film industry have contributed to the book as well.rakita shared some memories about her growing up years when prem chopra was in his prime as the foremost villain of bollywood. “i know what we felt when we went to the theatres saw him getting beaten up in the movies. first of all we hated the heroes. we were probably the only ones who hated the heroes. while everyone else loved amitabh bachchan we hated him. after the movie when we came home we thought our father has been beaten up for real or he has been killed so it used to be a big relief to see him fine. i remember when we were seven or eight; we would tell him often ‘change your profession.’ we meant it.”rakita said that it was fun and challenging to explore her father’s professional life “in the past two years i have discovered what he did behind the scenes and all he went through. how he stayed in the industry for fifty years is by itself a self-help book if you ask me. tell me how many people survive fifty years in any profession not just in films? i found him being able to adapt to situations and times and i also found that there is a certain level of honesty besides the talent that made him survive. he had something likeable about him which is why a lot of people repeated him in films. if you see there are so many movies that he did with the same actors and film-makers people kept coming back to him in spite of him not being part of any camp. when i interviewed salim khan for this book he said “now we have a salman khan camp a shah rukh khan camp but your father had the ability to be friends with everybody. he once won a filmfare awards for do anjaane which was an amitabh bachchan film; he was also nominated for mehbooba which was a rajesh khanna film so he could do it with people who otherwise would be in conflict with each other.”the baddie with an adorable personality echoes her observations saying “according to me in every sphere of life you have to put in very honest hard work to reach your destination. and you have to continue that it is not that you see success and you stop making efforts.” earlier bollywood villains had exaggerated and peculiar mannerisms making movies and the characters look larger than life. nowadays movies are more realistic and villains do not come across as cartoonish. chopra agreed saying “nowadays we are making films that people can identify with. in earlier times there used to be moneylenders land owners ministers and politicians. it is interesting that people used to like certain characteristics of villains. villains in today’s films have mellowed down; they want to underplay the characters. villains earlier use to be larger than life and people used to love them.”the veteran actor told us that dilip kumar inspired him a lot. “i used to be very enamoured of dilip kumar. i loved him irrespective of whether his films were hits or flops and i had an opportunity to work with him so that was a great moment for me. i learnt a lot while working with him.”
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