Dulquer Salmaan: Earlier, I wasn’t sure if I could act or if people will be able to watch me

Over the course of his decade-long career, Dulquer Salmaan has established himself as one of the most popular actors of new age cinema. But it seems that the actor initially struggled with a lot of self doubt before he made his debut in 2012.

During a recent interaction with the media, Dulquer opened up about how frightened and anxious he was when he made his silver screen debut in his late twenties. Being the son of Megastar Mammootty, Dulquer feared that his entry into cinema would risk tarnishing his father’s name. “I wasn’t sure if I could act or if people will be able to watch me for two hours in a theatre”, he said.

The actor went on to speak about the number of insecurities he grappled with at the time, like a lot of people in their twenties. He also added that when he debuted, he did not have a lot of successful second generation actors to look to at the time. He spoke of how Prithviraj Sukumaran entered cinema long before Dulquer, and how Fahadh Faasil was also coming into his own at the time. “So I don’t have much of a reference there,” said Dulquer.

But now, cinema was his life, and his ambition and inspiration. He said that his home was his ‘happy place’, and the only thing which would get him to step out of it was his passion for cinema.

The last year saw Dulquer’s releases spanning across languages, with Hey Sinamika (Tamil), Salute (Malayalam), Sita Ramam (Telugu) and Chup: Revenge of the Artist (Hindi). The actor will next be seen in Abhilash Joshiy’s King of Kotha, which will see him share the screen with Shabeer Kallarakkal, Gokul Suresh, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Chemban Jose Vinod, Prasanna, Shammi Thilakan, Nyla Usha, and Shanthi Krishna. The actor will also make his web series debut with the Netflix series Guns & Gulaabs.