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| Ranveer Singh as Bikram in Gunday, that releases on February 14 |
Ranveer Singh is lying on the floor in a conference room in Yash Raj Studio when t2 meets the actor. Dressed in grey drop-crotch track pants, a white tee with Jim Carrey’s mug on it and a grey beanie, Ranveer is doing crunches on a foam roller. “This is really good for core strengthening,” he says after finishing a quick set.
Through the next half an hour, the 28-year-old actor paces around the conference room, plays with a yellow smiley stress ball and flashes his designer underwear as he chats about life after his first Rs 100-crore film, his bromance with Gunday co-star Arjun Kapoor, his romance with Deepika Padukone and... rolling like a baller!
What is life like after Ram-Leela?
It’s good. See, for me, nothing has changed.
Sorry but are you going to pace around this room while we talk?
Yup. Wait. I have an idea.
(Takes off his jacket and wears it back-to-front and puts the dictaphone in the hoodie)
That’s ingenious!
Hai na?! I am MacGyver, right here! (Starts pacing again)
Haan, so you asked about life after Ram-Leela. It’s different for the rest of the world and how they perceive this actor Ranveer Singh or “star Ranveer Singh”. But it is the same for me. I still live in the same house. I still love the same people. I have the same people working for me. I function as I used to earlier... read scripts, sign films, shoot and then promote them. So, life for me is the same. But I am not apathetic or ignorant of the change of perception in the eyes of the industry, audience or media.
People say my star value has increased. The tone of what is written about me in the media has changed. The trade feels that I am commercially bankable. Directors and producers see more potential than they had seen prior to Ram-Leela. So, I know of all these changes but I don’t buy into them.
But it is tough to not get swayed by all the hoopla around you.
In the middle, I did start to lose my focus. I got a lecture from my best buddy. He told me that my head is getting caught up in all the peripherals like PR and endorsements. I had to get my head back in the game. I am glad that I got this talk before we started shooting Kill Dil because I had started taking my core job — acting — for granted. So, I did a complete turnaround and started focusing on my craft once again.
Did you treat yourself to celebrate the success of Ram-Leela?
(Laughs) Ahhhhh! (Pauses) Yeah! I treated myself to a luxury vacation.
To New York?
I am not telling (smiles). It was a real luxury vacation. I rolled like a baller. That was a treat to myself.
Let’s talk about Gunday, your next release. What got you interested?
I was waiting to do a mass entertainer. It’s diametrically opposite to a film like Lootera. Ali (Abbas Zafar, the director) came to me with a script which had a proper story, a well etched out character and was still a mass entertainer. It wouldn’t be any better.
Unfortunately, the films that are being released these days in the name of mass entertainers are very shoddy. They are a collection of gimmicks, gags and songs. They are planned backwards like a project. So, you have a fight, a romance song, comedy scene, club song, another fight, some drama and item song… there is no story. Characters have no depth in these films. But in Gunday, you are getting high entertainment value, brilliant action sequences, celebratory songs... but the focus is on the story of these well-etched characters.
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This is your first two-hero film…
Yeah! I was so glad when I got to know that Ali had pitched this film to Arjun (Kapoor), who I have great off-screen chemistry with.
Friendship aside, acting in a film with another hero is different because you are both then vying for the audience’s attention...
I am never apprehensive about other characters in a film. I have never craved to have a film’s focus on me. I come from a very different school of thought. I think this is a generation thing. The old-schoolers thought that the male protagonist... the ‘Hindi film hero’ should be the centre of the ecosystem. I don’t agree with this thought. My first film (Band Baaja Baaraat) was a romcom where both Anushka (Sharma) and I were on a level plane. I did Lootera knowing that the girl (Sonakshi Sinha’s Paakhi) has the author-backed part. Ram-Leela again we were on a level plane. Gunday is also a pairing on a level plane.
When Gunday was being planned, I knew that by the time it releases, I will be two films senior to Arjun. So I knew that for all practical purposes, I should have the lead role, but I had no insecurities. I am never insecure whether it’s in relation to my female or male co-actor. I am confident of my ability. I believe that a film is bigger than all of us. I am not obsessed with being the lead character. To give you another example, Zoya Akhtar’s film that I’ll be doing soon is an ensemble film and I have signed the film despite that. I just want to be a part of good films and do memorable characters.
Arjun and you give another meaning to the word ‘bromance’…
It’s epic, isn’t it? (Laughs) Talking so much about him in the recent days has made me figure out why we clicked. We are both driven by the same passions — movies and movie-making, fitness and women (laughs). We spend endless hours together and never run out of things to say or get bored. Arjun is my perfect mate. We are both particularly obsessed with mainstream Hindi films from the ’90s. We are born 10 days apart. We are both from the suburbs of Mumbai and come from similar socio-economic backgrounds. We have common friends. In any scenario, people consider me to be the jester. Arjun is someone who makes me laugh. I love him extra for that. Both of us are fitness nuts. Contrary to perception, I am not very gifted physically. So both of us have to work very hard to maintain a certain kind of physicality.
He has introduced me to finer things in life. Before we met, I was quite a ganwaar. He’s taught me about luxury brands. What kind of clothes to buy... this is Arjun Kapoor’s influence (pulls down his track bottoms to show off his black Dolce & Gabbana briefs)! I used to wear very vanilla chaddis. Now I wear fancy chads.... We are also both crazy about football.
Do you support the same teams?
Unfortunately not. He is a Chelsea boy and my team is Arsenal. Which is okay. Chelsea is a lesser evil than…
Man U?
Ahahaha I am not naming names!
So do you get together to watch matches?
Usually, but this season I haven’t been able to catch non-Arsenal games.
If you are such good friends, where did the talk of a rift between you on the sets of Gunday come from?
Dude, there are so many stories that come out of nowhere. Who knows who is sitting somewhere in a dark room and cooking these up? There are so many crazy stories about me out there.
What is the craziest rumour you’ve heard about yourself?
Just after I had signed the film, there was an article that said that my father paid Aditya Chopra Rs 10 crore to cast me in Band Baaja Baaraat. Can you even imagine the owner of a Rs 9,000-crore company needing Rs 10 crore from someone to make a movie? It was absurd. Also, my family was going through a financial slump at that time.
All of last year, there have been stories of Deepika Padukone and you being a couple which you have both shot down. Now with photos of a New York holiday being made public and your PDA at the Screen Awards, would you admit to being a couple?
I will choose not to answer this question. I don’t like that my personal life took a precedence over my work last year. And my New Year resolution is to not let that happen this year.
