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| Ranveer Singh in Tattad tattad, that he picks as his favourite scene from Ram-Leela |
Before flying off to Oman to shoot one last song for Gunday, Ranveer Singh met us in his eighth floor apartment near Khar Gymkhana over a steaming cup of coffee. The huge Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela opening to flaunt, the Amitabh Bachchan appreciation note to boast of, the fondness for Deepika Padukone to go red about, Ranveer went Tattad tattad with t2!
Many congratulations on the success of Ram-Leela. The film’s made more money in the first weekend than all your earlier three films combined! Did you expect such a strong start?
No. It was far beyond my expectations. But is there any elation? No! Because it’s more a feeling of relief. So many people have poured so much into this movie. It’s cost so much to make. So when the acceptance of the film translated to such big numbers, it was more relief than anything else.
Yes, it’s a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film. It’s got Deepika Padukone in sublime form. But Bollywood is so much about the leading man. Doesn’t the opening mean that besides your obvious talent, now there’s star pull to match it?
I’m not a numbers guy. Lootera is as special to me as Ram-Leela. The only thing that makes me happy about the numbers that Ram-Leela has notched up is that somewhere down the line they may empower me to make more brave choices in the kind of films I do. And those films will find funding, those films will find an audience, those films will find eyeballs. A movie doing numbers is not in your hands. The performance is in your hands and that’s also so subjective. Some people, including you, have found my performance in Ram-Leela a little too loud; some have appreciated it. There are other performances from this year which many are going crazy about; I don’t think much of them. I won’t take names of course.
Amitabh Bachchan sent you flowers after watching Ram-Leela. That must be special?
Mr Bachchan sending me a personalised note must be the greatest award I have ever received! You can see this plethora of awards (points towards the mantle filled with trophies)... they mean a lot to me, like a validation ‘ki bhaiyya you did a good job’, but coming from a guy who’s so much of the reason that you do what you do, that’s the greatest award.
So much of the love story in Ram-Leela is born out of lust. Was it there in the script or did Mr Bhansali base it on your chemistry with Deepika?
I found that in the first narration. And I told Mr Bhansali: I love it! I found it very honest. We have an idealistic take on love and it’s not always the case. Sometimes you are attracted to a person and it starts off with the physical aspect of it. The great part of having Deepika as the co-star was that from the first time we met for a reading of the script at Mr Bhansali’s place, she had no baggage or barriers. We were on the same page and we both knew what we were getting into. It’s an intense, passionate love story and we had to make it work, make it special. We were in it together.
Do you have to personally feel for a person to be honest to such raw passion on screen?
It depends... it depends on what kind of relationship the characters have in a film. If you are at loggerheads with a character, maybe it helps that you don’t like that person in real life.
I was asking about you and Deepika in Ram-Leela...
(Thinks for a while) It did help that I was very fond of Deepika, that I was very comfortable with Deepika.... It was a very demanding film for both of us and we would often find comfort in each other.
One question about the plot: Why doesn’t Ram go and bring back Leela at the start of the second half when her family members take her away and she is desperately calling and texting him?
I don’t know... I don’t know. Honestly that is a question even I had when I watched the complete film for the first time. Only Mr Bhansali can answer that. Actually the script kept evolving and it was far from the original. Only Mr Bhansali knew what was going on. Every day when we arrived on the sets the scenes were improvised with us. I was just committing to my task at hand. I trusted Mr Bhansali and his writers would keep the big picture in mind.
So you’re saying that everything on Ram-Leela happened on the sets and nothing was planned in advance?
Mr Bhansali is one director who makes his film on the set. As much prep as you do, when he is directing a scene, everything changes. He’s definitely very, very different from the other directors that way. Every morning you have to go with a blank slate. You are not going on set to execute a pre-planned scene, but to create. He’ll decide the space first, then start moulding things, then put the lights up, then he’ll ask the actors to do their own thing. He wants them to improvise, to do something new and radical with whatever information that needs to be achieved in that scene.
It’s a very volatile creative process with Mr Bhansali. He may not even shoot the scene we were supposed to shoot. And shoot something he’s feeling like that particular day. And scenes can go anywhere. So, very soon I realised that there’s no point in preparing or even learning my dialogues. Because dialogues would be written on the sets and so much would come from me.
Wasn’t it problematic too, not knowing what you were doing on any given day?
I preferred it actually. He would let me act out of my own instincts. It was a very organic and collaborative way of making movies. Something only someone of the stature of Mr Bhansali can do. Because on other film sets everyone’s bound by money. But he is not bothered about budgets and schedules. He’s like, ‘I’m making a movie which is going to live forever, live beyond you and beyond me; therefore we have to make magic today’. Every day he would come on the sets chasing movie magic. He’s in no rush whatsoever. He has to see some kind of spontaneous magic happening, otherwise he is not happy.
Your Ram is loud, boisterous, way larger than life. In Lootera you played a character who’s quiet and quite an introvert. Which is the real Ranveer?
I think Lootera was a little more difficult. That is also me but it’s a side I don’t show to very many people. It’s a side I’m afraid people might take advantage of... my vulnerability, my sensitivity. It’s a side people might find dull and boring... that’s a fear I have. I find this constant need to make people smile, to make people laugh. I’m a people pleaser. Vikram (Vikramaditya Motwane, the director) wanted me to get rid of that for Lootera. He wanted me to let go of those bad habits. Ram is more the person people see all the time.
I really don’t know who the real Ranveer is. It’s constantly a journey of self-exploration. I’m told meditation might help me find me. (Laughs) Right now I’m like a confused bhelpuri.
Which is your favourite scene from Ram-Leela? What do you watch over and over again?
Tattad tattad! (Laughs out loud) I just love the joy, the energy, the purity that Ganesh Masterji (Acharya) brings and Sanjay Bhansali mounts. And I love that I’m doing it. When I go to screenings for reactions, I stay for Tattad tattad.
And which was the toughest scene to do?
The ‘Leela jaisi koi nahin’ scene. It was damn tough. I was given the whole dialogue passage 10 minutes before roll time. We tried about seven times. Mr Bhansali doesn’t do pick-ups, he does the whole scene always, from start to finish. We tried getting it and while it was workable, it wasn’t special. So I requested him for another crack which he agreed to. I went back next day having psyched up mentally, even had a drink, and it happened in one take. Also, the climax was very difficult; I had to dig really deep for that.
Pratim D. Gupta
