Randeep Hooda plays the protagonist Deshu in Vishram Sawant?s D, produced by Ram Gopal Varma

n When did the acting bug first bite you?

It was during my boarding school days in Haryana. The dramatic department head Allen Lewis never took me in his play. I kept standing in the wings and watching my sister Anjali, who was a very fine actress. She was my first acting inspiration.

n Why did you shoot off to Australia for a management degree?

Before that I wasted two years in Delhi Public School. I did gain a bit of cosmopolitan culture there, having stayed in a very protected environment in Haryana. It was my hormones which dragged me to Australia for six years. I wanted to experience the freedom and the essence of another culture. Although I went for a degree in marketing and human resource management, I did mention to a friend before leaving that I was headed for the country of Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman.

After I spent the first year not studying and doing everything an 18-year-old does, I called up dad and wanted to get transferred to a performing arts school. He said: ?Beta, agar bhand banna hai to vapas aa ja.? So I stuck it out at the management school but they didn?t like the way I presented my final thesis. So I said f*** you and quit. But during my Aussie stay, I gained lots of experience doing everything from bribing cabbies to peeling 40 kg onions.

n How did you get the role of the Australia-returned cousin in Monsoon Wedding?

After coming back to India, I got a management job in an airlines company in Delhi. And I started doing ramp modelling for the Suneet Vermas and the Rohit Gandhis and Bals. I was rehearsing for a play with Sunit Tandon when I met with an accident and my hand got badly hurt. Then I received a call from Mira Nair asking me to audition for Monsoon Wedding. She must have learnt about me from the little modelling I had done.

I went to meet her and asked my mother to wait in the car two buildings away ? I didn?t want to let them know that I had come with my mom. I got the role and then I called my dad to know who Mira really was. I hadn?t seen Salaam Bombay ? aaj tak nahin dekha. Then I got tense and told Mira that I knew very little about acting. She said, ?Don?t worry, Naseer?s there, he will take care.? It was Naseer who opened my eyes to acting, taught me about the method to the madness. I realised that there was something beyond expression 2, 3, 45?

n Then Naseeruddin inducted you into his group Motley?

It wasn?t that easy. After Monsoon Wedding, I did a docudrama in Haryana, made by a New York guy Michael Cotrino. Then I went to Mumbai and met up with Naseer. He told me, ?Don?t be an actor if you can do something else. First become a model and then get into acting.? You know, like the Dinos and Johns. But I had made up my mind. So I started out sweeping floors and also went on to do a couple of plays?

n How did Ram Gopal Varma notice you?

It was one of Ramu?s men who saw me in a play and asked me to meet him. I was supposed to do a role in Ab Tak Chhappan. But then Ramu saw my pictures again and told me: ?Even though it?s my film, don?t do Ab Tak Chhappan. I will give you a huge launch in Ek.? Then, Ek got shelved and I went back to doing plays. One day, director Vishram Sawant saw my picture on Ramu?s desk and exclaimed, ?This is my D!?

n If D is a prequel to Company, do you play Ajay Devgan?s character?

D is a prequel to Company only in spirit. It shows that if Ajay Devgan?s character was young, how he got into gang banging. My character?s not Malik, I play Deshu. There are no Chandus, no Pandits. It is more of a story of this guy who wanted to become a gangster as he realised it was the best job opportunity in the environment he was in.

n Were you made to watch underworld films to get into the character?

I had seen lots and lots of underworld films and also adored them. I had also watched Company and found it better than many other films, even though I didn?t like the second half, which got too mushy. Where D is completely different from other underworld films is that this character?s father is not killed, mother?s not raped like the typical 70s Bachchan movies. He just joins the underworld as he would join any other business. If you take out the blood and gore, it is the story of any other professional. It is not an emotionally strung character.

n You didn?t even go for this much-hyped weight gain-loss ordeal or spend time in slums and all that?

(Laughs). No, I didn?t do the weight gain-loss of method acting. Nothing at all. It is just the imagination of Ramu, Vishram and me. I believe my face and body have the capability of being different if I make little changes to it.

Say someone like Jack Nicholson. He is Jack in every film but he is also the character. Whether it?s The Postman Always Rings Twice or As Good As It Gets or About Schmidt. I am looking at such a mixture of personality and acting skills. That?s the ideal blend.

n So much keeps getting written about your affair with Sushmita Sen. What?s your take?

I like to keep it private. I want to be known by the virtue of my own capabilities and not on the virtue of my associations.

n What?s next after D?

I am doing another Ram Gopal Varma production titled Shock, to be directed by Jijy Philips, who?s made the soon-to-be-released My Wife?s Murder.

Shock is an action-thriller with a love twist. The rest of the casting hasn?t been finalised.