RANVEER SINGH: THE ENERGY VACCINE WE NEED!

BY SANGEETA WADDHWANI

A NOSTALGIC LOOK AT AN INTERVIEW I DID WITH THE ACTOR FOR HELLO! SOME TWO YEARS AGO, WHEN HE FLIRTED AROUND WITH ALL THE GORGEOUS GIRLS ON THE ENTIRE TEAM! FEW KNOW THE FIRST-HAND IMPACT A RANVEER SINGH HAS ON YOU… IN GRIM TIMES LIKE THESE, JUST REVISITING PAST EXCHANGES ENERGISES ONE’S SPIRIT!

With Ranveer, we don’t want things to be normal. We want him to leap onto our shoot location through the roof, ninja style and announce that his Nouveau Royal Highness is here. Something exactly like that, does happen. The HELLO! team felt a sense of butterflies as he wafted in, like a technicoloured wave of Nordic light moving to his own inner music, at the otherwise sombre premises of the Charcoal Project store in suburban Mumbai.

Open to a fault, (he even roamed around in his underwear between shots), making bawdy jokes and flirting with all and sundry, he had the girls getting a full on dose of taporagiri, Ranveer style. A tug at our stylists’ t-shirt (when she tried to arrange his clothes), a legs akimbo for the camera, he proceeded to fill the space up with humour and plenty of shock value.

In many ways, the 1983 born actor is more like a rebellious 80s British pop star than the prim and propah retro hero which we have seen in at least three ambitious period films – Lootera, Bhajirao Mastani, and Goliyon Ka Raam Leela.  His mom’s friends smile at Ranveer’s outré sense of dress, till very recently. “I think it’s part of his energy, his wardrobe, his constant experimenting with himself,” says an elegant lady from the Indus Group, who has known both his mom Mira Singh and his mausi, Kavita Singh. “Yes he’s my cousin’s son, my maama’s daughter’s son,” shared Kavita many moons ago. “He’s a very sweet, well-behaved boy,” she had rounded off. Well our team has certainly seen a more recent version of Ranveer… Version 2.0!

RANVEER UNPLUGGED

“Hmmmmm…. You’re a towneeeee!” mumbles Ranveer as we start chatting on the phone; he immediately senses a non-star struck writer who didn’t park herself at Film City or hang around for six hours at a photoshoot. “Where are you now?” he asks. I tell him. “Well I am not far… am on the Sea Link.”  This is how earthy the man is. So wonderfully unaffected by the 3.5 billion strong audience he has, the boy wonder who had Mr Bachchan’s unequivocal admiration at the HELLO! HALL OF FAME awards this past year, when the senior actor said, “Not a breath was taken out of turn in your role as Peshwa Bhajirao.”  What an actor, just six years old in the business, must feel at a tribute from a maestro like that, can only be imagined. But Ranveer, ever on the move and ever on the make, has not stopped reaching for higher stars. So we begin by talking about this epic performance.

“I think why Mr Bhansali and I work well together is we both play very high risk games. He makes high risk choices, and so do I, as an actor. He enjoys somebody on his wavelength who doesn’t enjoy playing safe at all. The reason I drive him crazy and he drives me crazy, is that we try and achieve some kind of movie magic on the set everyday. So I will have my mood swings, he will have his, and all at the same time we are trying to achieve a shot. I am trying to generate an emotion, he’s trying to get a brilliant shot, and it’s a film set where time is money, it’s a very high cost, high pressure situation. It’s like trying to perform a surgery in the midst of a riot. So it’s a difficult process. Daily, he sets up a challenge; ‘I am throwing you the gauntlet, let’s see if you can live up to it. Here’s your talent for the day.’ I have to kind of crack it somehow. So in that process we do drive each other pretty crazy. But by far it has been the most creatively fulfilling experience doing these two films. A large part of my growth has been these two films, simply put. He has brought a landmark shift in my creative choices and abilities, he has been my most significant creative collaborator.”

SCREEN SOULMATE DEEPIKA PADUKONE

Reams may have been written about how during the 200 days of shooting for Bajirao Mastani, Ranveer fell off a horse and broke one shoulder. Not only did he have to continue playing a warrior with conviction, he had to “find ways to make it work for me, for the pain to be a catharsis.” Feeding him along was of course, his screen soulmate, Deepika Padukone. Their chemistry is already the stuff of celluloidal immortality: “Having had a sports background, she’s someone you love having on your team as she’s thoroughly professional; she’s clinical in her execution, you will never find a unit burderned by any issues from her end,” he says. “She’s an ace actor in terms of functionality. And in terms of the creative aspect, I create tremendously acting opposite her. I found in our first movie, Raam Leela, that she is a totally honest actor. And so generous and open hearted. I have worked with two distinct types of actors. In one scenario, you could be a log of wood and it won’t matter to the opposite actor because they are acting within themselves. It seems as if they are talking to you but what they are really doing is talking AT you. Now in a two dimensional medium, you won’t be able to catch that because as an audience you are only seeing 2D.  But if you are live on the set, especially if you have a background in theatre, you will be extra sensitive to these sorts of things. You know whan an actor is connected to you, and when she is not connected to you. Deepika, Anushka, Anil Kapoor, these are some of the actors I have worked with, and they have a level of submission I would say. When you look into their eyes, you say something, you know they are in touch with you, in that moment. They are all present. They will feed on it and you will feed off them.  There will be a genuine give and take and it won’t be smoke in the mirror. It is real.”

TO BE (AN ACTOR) OR NOT TO BE?

Scrape the dramatic surface, and Ranveer is a proper upper middle class boy, son of a glam Sindhi mom and a very pragmatic businessman dad. He may have “spent my childhood watching VHS after VHS of Hindi films, always wanting to grow up into a mainstream ‘hero’” but the culture that surrounded him at home was pro-education, pro-practicality. “I was never allowed to forget that I was a complete outsider, wanting to make it in an industry which is still very nepotistic. Yet, I was confused as till the age of 15, all directions were pointing towards me being a performing artiste. I would excel in dance, drama, debate, elocution. I was good. I wasn’t outstanding in academics or sports, but I was outstanding in these areas, always getting leading roles, top prizes in competitions related to elocutions and Best Actor prizes. So I knew that was my forte.”

KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE

Still, reality kept biting. “In the year 2000, when I was 17, I saw only star sons getting the big breaks – be it an Abhishek Bachchan, a Tushar Kapoor, or a Hrithik. Stars like Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan were exceptions who had come in a while ago. So I chose to be practical, and aim at a degree in Media Studies in the US.  I was a good writer and felt okay, maybe I can grow up to be the Creative Director in an ad agency someday. I thought I’d graduate from University, and get a job in Chicago or NYC. That was really my plan.”

However he had an epiphany even in the US, as a student. “At 19, I took an acting course, by chance there was only one seat left and I had to earn my credit so I took it. On the first day itself I was performing in front of a group of people after a really long time and I felt that rush of performance; I was like man this is it, this is what I have to do for the rest of my life, why am I compromising on my one big dream. Ok, I might fail but I can accept that failure but I can’t accept not ever trying! So I called my dad and said ‘I know you have invested everything into this American degree of mine but what I would really like to do is to return to India and try and become a Hindi film hero!’”

THE GREAT CAREER GAMBLE

Fortunately his dad was extremely supportive, and said “Just finish your education and then you’re free to do what you want… as long as you are pursuing what you are truly passionate about, if you have identified that, I have no doubt that you will do your best at it.”

When Ranveer speaks about the true secret of his success, it’s clear this critical support – fiscal, physical and psychological – was a major step on his climb to where he is. “My parents were supportive even when quite frankly the chips were down for them as well. You know when you’re struggling you have to put time and money into the way you look, your physique, your portfolio; they stood by me and never let me feel the pinch… even if they were feeling it. A lot of young actors ask me how did you do it? This was it.  I always had a square meal and a roof over my head. I was able to spend spend three-and-a-half years of my life basically hustling, going from acting classes to doing theatre to being an assist director, getting my portfolio done, going from office to office, meeting everyone remotely connected to the entertainment business. Finally I got a call for an audition for a movie that Yash Raj was doing, looking for a new face. That was that, I went in and I did well and the rest is history!”

THE MONSTER OF FAME

Though he may seem a natural when it comes to entertaining live audiences and dishing out soundbytes, Ranveer is candid that fame is not always the best thing to happen to sensitive artistes. “I was pretty sad in Ladies Vs Ricky Behl because it was a difficult period for me; I had suddenly been hit by this truck called Overnight Celebrity after Band, Baaja Baarat; suddenly you don’t know who to be, what to say, what to wear and how to interact with people. It’s all too new, it’s all too overwhelming. And it started affecting my entire being, and consequently my performance on screen. I came through that film unscathed, it did average business and was not looked upon as a disaster, I sailed through by good fortune.” He is also convinced that he was very raw in the challenging role he played in the brooding period love story Lootera opposite Sonakshi Sinha. “It was a very brave choice at the time I chose to do this film, a part that was maybe beyond my years. I was too much of a novice. If at all I managed to do anything with that part it was out of the sheer grit of a newcomer, and nothing more. In fact, Naseeruddin Shah shared these exact same observations over the phone yesterday, giving me very strong pointers on where I could have done much better. I feel it took me at least four films to get comfortable in front of the camera,” he shares in all modesty. “Even now when I go to a film set and the first shot of the day starts to roll, I feel that little bit of a jitter, which is a good thing, you know, you use it to your advantage and channel it.”

BLOSSOMING IN BHANSALI’S CAMP

So what is that great alchemy that made a gawky, weakly projected hero of Lootera morph into the confident, or as they say in Hindi ‘bhulandh’ Maratha Peshwa Bajirao? The secret was Bhansali’s method. Leaving a character’s interpretation to an actor. Earlier, I had a completely different perspective and understanding of what this acting thing was all about. Slowly, slowly, that fixed idea of mine starting withering away and now I am a completely different actor.”

It must have felt so empowering for a relatively young-in-the-business Ranveer to go find the ‘voice’ for his own character Ram in Goliyon Ka Raam Leela. “I wanted to do something with the language. While the dialogues were fantastic, I wanted to play a little with dialect. Mr Bhansali was not sure, but he did send me to Gujarat for a week, and he said you pick up the dialect, come back and read your lines to me and I will see how you sound. And I did; I read maybe four sentences and he said ‘This is it! You got to read your lines this way for the whole film!’ In fact, it isn’t only actors who are accorded this creative license, it’s technicians too. “This is a conversation I often have with our multiple national award winning cinematographer Mr Sudeep Chatterjee, we keep discussing why it’s such a pleasure to work with him. Sudeep-da is a technical story teller and an artist himself; I am a performing artist myself. So it gives us true fulfilliment when a director allows us that freedom, he ties Sudeep’s vision and my vision with his own, and something special comes from that.” It won’t be surprising if the triumvirate – Ranveer, Deepika and Mr Bhansali, work together again for his next period film, Padmavati. In fact, at the IFFA Awards press conference this year, Deepika Padukone gamely shared, “I think in some way, we are all on the same page. We are all together in it for the right reasons… we are in it because we want to tell stories in the most magnificent way possible. I have to say that we feel really fortunate that everytime he (Sanjay Leela Bhansali) thinks of movies, he thinks of us.”

‘BEFIKRE’ IN A YASH RAJ FILM

The actor has now traversed from Yash Raj Films to other far more intense acting adventures and is now back with Yash Raj Films, with Befikre. But Ranveer doesn’t like to see it as coming full circle. “I feel it’s a huge opportunity to learn again. Adi sir and I have really have bonded this past year. The genre of the film sets the metre for the performance; if you are doing an action film it will be physically draining, if you are doing an emotional film it will be an emotional roller coaster. If you are doing a light, breezy kind of romedy, almost, you are bound to have a light experience. So to me it was like a picnic in Paris. The script was light, the lines were light, the romance was light.  We had a lot of fun making it. Like Adi sir would ask me ‘show me how you are going to say that.’ I would say, ‘Adi, I really haven’t given it any thought, I think we should just let the camera roll and see what happens.’ And that’s pretty much how we made most of the movie! We took a lot of single shots.  The scene starts and we are just walking and talking and having a conversation for three to four minutes and yeah, we would be done for the day. And staying in Paris, you know it’s a beautiful city, the production team would pull out all stops, we really a five star experience. Adi once told me before we started shooting the film, ‘Man I am just really happy right now, and I want that happiness to manifest into a film.’ He has produced and breathed films ever since he was a kid and it’s what he truly, truly loves.” As for his screen chemistry with his co-star Vaani, he says, “She is very new to the craft, she did Shudh Desi but that was two years ago. I see a lot of myself in her, the way I used to be at the start of my career. Very, very nervous. I saw her grow from day one to day 40, undergoing a huge learning curve. It’s very endearing to see a new actor find her way around the craft; I did whatever I can to support her. There is a thin line, between imposing your ideas, and letting your co-star have her own experience and her own growth.”

ARE YOU AN OLD WORLD ROMANTIC HERO INSIDE?

Given the highly resonant dialogue he spoke in Bajirao Mastani – ‘Maine ishq kiya hai, ayashi nahin’ – and the fact that Ranveer genuinely seems to be a one-woman man, one can’t help but ask him this question. “I do find the current scenario kind of strange. I was born in 1985 so I have kind of seen a miniature revolution in how interpersonal relationships are. There was a time when there was none of this technology, and relationship dynamics were different. That being my foundation, yes, I am very traditional when it comes to romance. And the idea of romance. Maybe perhaps if I was born more recently and Facebook and Snapchat were more prevalent, I would have a different idea. But having been born in an era where there weren’t even mobile phones, that makes my idea of romance very, very traditional.”

LION HEART, A SCOUNDREL, A FASHION ENFANT TERRIBLE…?

“I am as curious as the next person, even I don’t know who I am. I am always finding who I really am, and have not managed to make much headway either. All I know is I am an actor, always a work in progress!”

THAT SPECIAL RANVEER ENERGY

“I perhaps have a little more energy than most people. My reading of it, is that I have a great zeal for what I am doing; a lust for life. I like to live each day as if it’s my last, give my all to everything I am doing. I am where I have always wanted to be. I came back from the US at 21, got my break at 24, and I am 31 now, so it’s been about six years. Most times I can’t believe what is happening to me…!

THE SOCIAL MEDIA STAGE: THE PARIS THEATRE EXPERIENCE

“How does one cope with the 200 cameras popping out of people’s pockets, everywhere one goes? I think one just has to be oneself, unabashedly. Of course everyone has a different idea and a different take on this idea. I think if you are yourself, then it’s just a question of how much into your personal life you would let people in. So yes, I do believe it has become a bit much. Coming back to that incident, dancing to Baby ko Bass Pasand Hai in a Paris theatre – for me, I just did something spontaneous. And what I couldn’t get over was that nobody was enjoying the moment with me! Really, you know. I was up there, doing what we do in Gaiety Galaxy and in Chandan cinema, it’s what I have always been doing ever since I was a kid, and nobody was in the moment, they just wanted to capture the moment. Nobody danced with me, I just saw 15 to 20 hands up in the air with smartphones, trying to capture the moment. Everywhere all the time, nobody wants an autograph anymore, it’s all about the selfie. All this does become very taxing after a point. It’s a very abnormal life, wherever I am, somebody could have a video documentation of whatever I am doing, in high definition, that could be uploaded for the entire world to see in a matter of seconds. It’s an abnormal existence, everyone is still coming to terms with it.  Like I am sitting in the front seat of my car right now, and there are bikers on my left, filming me having a phone conversation. This too, could go viral. It has definitely had a huge impact on the meaning of celebrity life. And we are all finding our way around this parallel stage!” 

Shakespeare had issued a statuary warning, when he stated that “all the world’s a stage.” This generation of actors will have to romance, fret, freak out in extreme privacy. They live under the summons of camera and action, long after the last light on the set has been unplugged. They may search for an innocent interaction with the moment, only to find they are mere fodder for spectators, no matter what their intent. Good luck with playing Ranveer Singh, Mr Singh. You have a fond audience, and this time, it’s spread all over the world…!