His Dopinder, a wide-eyed taxi driver befriended by superhero Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds, became an instant hit with fans of the film when it released in 2016. Karan Soni returns with the character in Deadpool 2 this Friday. t2 caught up with the 29-year-old Delhi boy on being Dopinder and what he’s up to in Deadpool 2.  

When you made the first film, did you ever think Dopinder would become so popular?

No, not really (laughs). I really liked the way Dopinder was presented in the film and that no one, after watching the film, went, ‘Now why is this character getting so much screen time?!’ (Laughs)  The first film turned out to be a great experience and I am really looking forward to the sequel. I get to be in the film a lot more and do a lot of cool stuff that I didn’t get to do in the first film. 

So it must have been a straight ‘yes’ when you were told that Dopinder would be in Deadpool 2… 

When they signed me on for the first film, they actually signed me on for four Deadpool movies at one go. Right from the beginning, Ryan (Reynolds) and the writers had the idea that they wanted my character to continue. The first film came out and did well right away, and I got an email from the team saying they were going to make the sequel pretty much the following year. But I had no idea what I was going to be doing in the movie. I only got the script the day before I started filming. When I read it,I was really excited. 

How have you approached playing this character?

Right from the audition stage, I knew where I wanted Dopinder to go. In this insane world of superheroes and villains, he’s the only guy who’s pretty much normal. And yet, he’s so comfortable with Deadpool.

Dopinder is a cool guy… he can easily be intimidated by Deadpool and all these crazy guys around him, but he keeps it normal and it hardly took him any time in the first film to become friendly with Deadpool. After the first film, a lot of Deadpool fans came up to me to say how much they liked the buddy vibes between Deadpool and Dopinder. 

People primarily relate to Dopinder because they feel, ‘That’s how I would be in that world’. They also like the fact that Dopinder is an innocent guy who kind of doesn’t really understand all that’s happening  around him. 

How has it been sharing screen space with Ryan Reynolds in two films? Do you guys “high-five” each other off camera as well?

(Laughs) We don’t really high-five off camera! But if I have to be hundred per cent honest, while making the first film, I wasn’t star- struck because it had been a few years since I had seen him in a movie… I had probably last watched him in The Proposal (2009). I was really impressed while working with him then because I thought he was so funny as Deadpool. But while shooting the second film, I actually was very star-struck (laughs) because by then I knew how talented he was. I became very shy. He tried to talk to me and I was so shy! (Laughs) 

But it’s great to work with him so early in my career. Deadpool is one of the most successful films ever, but he doesn’t let that faze him; he just keeps his head down and keeps on working. He works so hard on set it’s unbelievable. Plus, he’s a really nice guy to have around. I am really glad he’s got a writing credit because he did work really hard on the script. He knows that the hype will ensure that Deadpool 2 makes a lot of money, but he’s worked just as hard on the sequel as he did in the first film. 

A cab driver who listens to Bollywood music and talks about Tandoori Fish — Dopinder plays to every Indian stereotype in the book. Going into the film, did that bother you?

For me, it’s always been not what the character is, but what his purpose in the story is. We shot the film in Vancouver and there are a lot of Indians staying there. I had never been there before, but this time, I got into three different cabs and they all had Indian drivers! (Laughs) I would sit and take mental notes because these guys were literally my character! 

I played Dopinder not thinking about what he represents, but whether he contributes in any way to the story. What I really love about the film is that Deadpool can make fun of Dopinder — his accent, his mannerisms, his problems — but he never does that. 

Dopinder’s biggest contribution is that he makes Deadpool look good. Deadpool is otherwise quite crass, but when he’s with Dopinder, he’s a nice guy, he’s friendly. And that’s so different from all the other relationships that Deadpool has in the film. And in the second film, Dopinder grows by leaps and bounds just in terms of personality and his function in the script. He’s now spent a lot of time with Deadpool and is ready for more responsibility, ready for a new kind of life. 

You reportedly went to the US a few years ago to study business, but ended up getting into acting. How did that happen? 

I did some plays in school, but the plan was never to act.  I went to the British Embassy school in Delhi and the curriculum involved picking nine subjects and I picked drama as one. But it was more of a hobby and when I came to Los Angeles, I met people here in college who were actors. So it seemed like a real job to me then (smiles). I decided to learn acting. The difference between Bollywood and Hollywood is that here we have a lot of actors who work all the time, though you may never recognise them. That’s what my goal was. If I can pay my bills and do something I love, it would be the best life. 

You are apparently writing a script that you want to partly film in India with Bollywood actors… 

That’s right. It’s about a guy who goes to Wall Street leaving his home in India and yearns to go back. I want to film something in India because I’ve never done it. I am very curious to take my work to India.