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| Randeep Hooda at INOX (South City). Picture: Pabitra Das |
There’s something quite impish about Randeep Hooda, who plays the 19th century painter Raja Ravi Varma in Friday release Rang Rasiya, as he sits carelessly reclined on a couch, his white breeches tucked into riding boots sprawled on the table, giving you that half-smile and shooting: “So you want to know what it’s like to make love on screen...”
On the contrary, Ketan Mehta was having a tough time with the censors, Nandana Sen was dealing with the challenge of posing nude while you seemed to have the easiest part in the whole deal!
Well, Ketan did not let me wear a shirt much in the movie. He really objectified me as a man. Ketan has been exploiting my midriff for a long time and I think I must take it up! Jokes apart, once a movie is over, you’ve gotta move on. I like to shed that skin as soon as possible because it irritates me and makes me sick. I need to get up and run away.
But wasn’t it frustrating to wait endlessly for a release especially for a film that you did in the early stage of your acting career?
It was frustrating in the sense that I was really banking on this movie releasing. I had let go of some other movies because I was doing this and then there was a big gap of no work for two-and-a-half years. But now I feel happy that it did not release then because it would have been before its time. This is the right time for Rang Rasiya to release. The gamut of sensuality has been pushed to a certain degree since then and both me and Sunny Leone have contributed to that direction [in Jism 2]. Also, all these years later, now biopics are in fray. People are more curious and aspirational about icons and how they became what they became. And in the last couple of years I have also garnered some more audience which I did not have at that time as a new actor.
You and Nandana have crackling chemistry in the film. How did that come about?
It’s called acting! (Laughs) If there are two good actors there is always chemistry. Chemistry is not created by externals. In fact, I don’t like to be friends with my co-stars. It kills it. It’s only bad actors who don’t have chemistry or actors who are seeing each other or married to each other. That kills the chemistry.
Was it tough to become 19th century painter Raja Ravi Varma?
I think all roles have their own challenges. I have to find it within me. When I came for this film, I came straight as an encounter specialist Daya Nayak (D) so my first challenge was to change the eyes. A man like Daya Nayak is also very observant but he’s looking for the bad in people. A painter is also very observant but he’s looking for beauty and love. That was a challenge.
The biggest thing was I didn’t know about this man. I was ignorant. Nandana knew about him because she’s a Bengali; I am a Jat who’s ignorant about these things. I was like, ‘I like the script but who is he?’ So Ketan opened a book of his paintings and showed me. When he came to the paintings of Lakshmi and Saraswati that’s when it sank in that I have had these paintings in my house and my family and my friends’ families have been praying to these very prints, forever. Then I started doing research on him and the magnitude of this man’s achievements and his contribution to our culture, arts and society in general was immense.
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Apart from the eyes and the mindset, the body language was also a challenge. He was a Bharatanatyam dancer and all arts are feminine, so he had to be a bit effeminate. And I definitely believe he was India’s first rock star because of the kind of fan mail he got... the Indian postal service could not manage and had to open a separate post office for him! Also to have the guts to give these gods a human face and his trysts with his muses, which I have been practising for a very long time (laughs). He must have been a very charming man to keep somebody sitting in that pose while he painted them. Must have entertained them for sure!
What changed for you as an actor after the two-year lull?
For me to open out to all genres of cinema, jump out of your comfort zone and do something you’ve never done before.... Also, it’s a big learning from Raja Ravi Varma. Before I did Rang Rasiya, I had in my mind an image of a niche actor. When I didn’t have work for two years I was on this niche trip and about independent filmmakers till I realised that they are not independent filmmakers but filmmakers who don’t have the means to cast Salman Khan today. I realised that the deepest desire of any artiste is to reach out to as many people as possible. It’s not to be niche. That’s when I opened out and worked with the Bhatts, with Salman and all kinds of people.
Don’t you want to do more hero-centric roles?
The next film of mine is Main Aur Charles. Would that be hero-centric? But he’s a villain. I don’t know but I’m glad that I’m a part of these movies because we need it. This is the phase we are going through as a nation and I’m glad that I’m a part of those movies because they’re saying something. Things I go after usually don’t work out for me. I’m one of those people.
How much of a difference did Highway make?
If one film could make your career or destroy it, a lot of people would not be here or would be here forever. That’s not the case. A career is made brick by brick, movie by movie. Sometimes the brick goes in the wrong way, you have to take it out and put it back in the right place. One movie can make or break no man, actor or director.
Do you see yourself as the thinking woman’s sex symbol?
I hate the thinking man tag or that of a thinking woman’s actor. I don’t want it, boss! It’s usually for ugly people. I want to be lusted after and not thought about. I’m more like ‘Go f*** off with your thoughts, we’ll talk about that later’ (laughs). I’m not a bad conversationalist but that’s not what I’m looking for.
And how do you handle all the attention from females lusting after you?
Oh, I think I handle it very well. With a lot of dignity and a lot of care that nobody misinterprets or misunderstands it. In fact after Highway I had to go on social media and tell women, ‘Don’t want to be kidnapped, please. Not every kidnapper is Mahavir Bhati, not even me!’ That was the impact of that character but if you think Highway has made my life, no. Kick has done more for me than Highway. Immediately in one shot it exposed me to an audience buying Rs 130 tickets, accumulating to Rs 240 crore. That’s the reach. It’s always about reaching out to people. Bathroom Oscars, I’ve got many. Don’t have space in my house for those anymore.
Are you actually single?
Oh, I would never ever be totally taken. A part of me is in DVDs in people’s houses or on the screen. That will never be taken. I’ve got other things I do, like sports. I bought this polo team called Royal Roosters recently and I’ve got a big string of 27 polo horses. We’re based out of Kandota in Jaipur. This year I won seven medals in the National Equestrian Championship with show jumping and dressage. I do theatre, I write. There’s nothing more to talent than enthusiasm. It’s what you like that you practise more. god-given gifts, I don’t believe in. When you love something you find time for it and that’s why my romantic trysts are not in the forefront of my life. I’m romancing my life. That’s my biggest romance.
QUICK 10
On your phone: Twitter
In your earphones: I’m a jazz fanatic. I play the alto-saxophone. Self-taught, like riding
By your bedside: A table lamp and an ashtray
In your wardrobe: I wear the same things again and again. I think I look better naked
Comfort food: Chocolate
First thing you notice in a woman: Her eyes
One thing in a woman that turns you off: Being drunk
What women find irresistible in you: That I can make them an offer they can’t refuse
Flirt factor: Listening. It always works
A heroine you’d love to romance on screen: Cate Blanchett
