One thing that strikes you about him is his unwavering candour.  His absolute unwillingness to call a spade a shovel. That’s what separates Abhay Deol from the boys. Yes, his honesty smacks you right in the solar plexus.  You’re afraid, very afraid for him when he answers certain questions with his utmost forthrightness. You want him to temper his answers but he’ll have none of it. If he believes in something, he’ll say it. Consequences be damned. Read on: 

One thing you love and one thing you hate about yourself?  

(Laughs) I love my new car. There’s not much really to love. I love my desire for travel. One bad thing would be my insecurities maybe.    

Are you modest?  

Uhh.. Not at all, I’m an actor.    

Do you live on the edge?  

(Laughs) Ya lately. Yesterday I met my doctor and asked him to give me something to calm my nerves. I have been generally edgy.    

So how did Cupid strike?  

(Chortles) With an axe and not with a bow and arrow.    

Live-in or marriage?  

Live-in for sure.    

You don't believe in marriage?  

It’s not that I don’t believe in marriage but I think if a live-in works well, it will lead to marriage. I’d like to live-in with someone before marrying that person. I’m not against marriage but I see marriage as a cultural phenomenon not a natural one. Nature doesn’t ask you to get married, people ask you to get married. So you marry when you want to divide your property, your accounts or to give your children a name. But those are all unnatural things. The natural thing is to fall in love and have children because you love each other. And for that you don’t need a piece of paper. Also, after meeting married people, who are obviously not in love and are blatantly cheating on each other, I feel what’s the big deal with the institution of marriage? It looks like something that the human race will eventually do away with when we progress and survive. For sure. If they survive as a culture and as a race, they’ll probably do away with marriage.    

Name one of your OCDs?  

There was a phase when I kept washing my hands. Recently it’s making sure that the gas is off in the apartment. It’s generally stuff to do with the house. I don’t like mess at home.    

Are you metrosexual?  

I’ve never understood the term. If heterosexual are into people of different genders, homosexuals are into same sex, then what are metrosexuals? (Laughs) Those who are into cities? I can deal with heterosexuality and homosexuality, they are understandable. But this?    

What if men made a pass at you?  

I’d be flattered for sure.    

You wouldn’t be uncomfortable?  

Not at all. We make too much of a deal out of sexuality, unfortunately. People who are not confident of their sexuality are the ones who question other’s sexuality and are also offended by other people’s sexuality. If you see human nature, we are conditioned, we have everything within us, we can go anywhere and be anything. I meet so many heterosexual people who I think actually aren’t and some homosexuals whom I look at and ask, ‘‘Are you sure? You might like the other side also.’’ It’s all about conditioning. There is too much pressure on sex in the world because it’s been suppressed for so long. We are all perverts somewhere. Sex has been bombarded to us as imagery and it’s always there pricking the subconscious mind. In India where sex is suddenly not a taboo anymore, all we can see is sex. It’s actually more here than in the West. Like in the West nudity is okay. Nude women on screen look completely normal. But here we have them in the tiniest, tightest of clothes, showing their cleavage, close ups of boob and ass shaking. This is just frustration and suppression. I’d rather see her naked or aesthetically shot, either ways she’ll look way more beautiful.    

Your wildest fantasy?  

Hmmm. I'm not telling you that, no way. (Laughs) Maybe doing it on top of Eiffel tower or something like that. Just for the sake of saying something.    

What’s your one addiction?  

(Laughs) I smoke a joint. Ya, I can be a pot head sometimes.    

Really?  

I wouldn’t call myself an addict, I’m obsessive if anything. I would actually not mind starting a campaign to legalise hemp. You know how many products we can make out of hemp? You can make bags, paper, oils, medicines, fibre, clothes. There’s a lot of advantage to it but because the West has banned it. So have we. In America, it’s understandable. They need to make a profit out of everything. They didn’t know how to make a profit out of this, so they banned it. But why are we banning weed? Everybody’s on it on Holi! Why don’t they arrest people who drink and eat bhang? I don’t get it. Why are the Shiv bhakts still roaming free? Because it’s religion, so they can smoke? I can also be a Shiv bhakt then. How do you know? How do you know I don't have a lingam in my house, which I pray to? I think our morals are skewed. We shouldn’t be borrowing everything from the West. We tend to say, we have Indian pride and our own laws, but half of our laws were written by the British.   

If you were to turn into a woman overnight, what is the one thing you'll miss?  

(Laughs) I’d be too busy touching myself. I think I’d take a few months to explore my body and after that I’ll think about what I’d miss. I’m not being a sexist but it’s a man’s world and I would like the power of a man. If you change your sex the whole world around you would change too. I would miss my world as a man, good or bad. People’s attitude towards you’d change. Like if I were a woman in Iran, then I’d have to wear a burkha. I would miss the attitudes of people around me.    

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