Dulquer Salmaan, one of the jury members at the short film section - Dimension of the 19th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star, spoke at length about his career in the film industry and Indian cinema.
He reportedly told IANS that he doesn’t take his stardom seriously but has been concentrating on his work. He has been quoted as saying, “Honestly, I do not take my stardom seriously, only work. I know my fans love me because of my work. Yes, if they are my fans, they will come to watch me in theatres even if the film is not so good. But if I am continuously delivering bad films, no one will come to watch me. So, all that matters is a good film. So, yes, my parameter of choosing a script applies for everybody. I think as an actor, if I cannot see myself in the character that I have been offered, I cannot play the part. So I do not do a film unless convinced.”
Answering the question about stars from Bollywood venturing into the south Indian film industry and vice versa, Dulquer Salmaan said that he welcomes this cultural exchange. He has been quoted as saying, "I think that is the best way to celebrate the inclusive nature of our culture, firstly. And I think this is but natural because we are all migrating to parts of India and getting familiar with each other's culture. So as a Punjabi, you must be having some south Indian friends with whom you share films and talk on that. That is how you get a glimpse of Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu cinema."
The star is currently busy with the Hindi movie Karwaan and the trilingual Mahanati which will be released in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam apart from the Malayalam film Oru Bhayankara Kamukan.