A wave of laughter runs through the staff members and other journalists awaiting their turn for the interview, who by now have started rejigging their questions…reports Akshay Acharya
Its been four years since the audiences have seen Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor on screen. His last outing ‘Sanju’ the biopic of Sanjay Dutt was a superhit, and the actor is coming back to the silver screen with his upcoming film ‘Shamshera’ where as destiny would have it, he is featuring alongside the subject of his last film — Sanjay Dutt.
While the city of Mumbai soaks in the heavy downpour which is a regular affair during the monsoon season, Ranbir, sitting inside one of the stages of the conglomerate premier film studio YRF – Yash Raj Films, speaks with IANS about his upcoming film, a friendly advice from his late father Rishi Kapoor and working with Sanjay Dutt in the film.
He starts the conversation by saying “First of all, I’m very happy that I will soon become a father.”
A wave of laughter runs through the staff members and other journalists awaiting their turn for the interview, who by now have started rejigging their questions.
“There’s no feeling like this in the world!”, Ranbir, who has been answering the same question by different media for the whole day, finally lets his boredom out as he jests and nudges the correspondent to ask meaningful questions or as he says, “kaam ki baat (related to work).”
Somewhere ‘Shamshera’ has a sense of rebellion on Ranbir’s part whose father once told him not to do any period film because they don’t generally click with the audience.
Sharing his childhood memory, Ranbir shares, “When I was growing up my father said ‘kabhi bhi dhoti wali picture mat karna’ (never do a period film). It’s very rare that a film like that works’. Having said that, he came from a different school of thought of that period but for me ‘Shamshera’ was a no-brainer when it came to saying yes to the script.”
For Ranbir, the film is just perfect because it has “everything”.
Furthering his point, the actor says, “It presented a great opportunity to me as an actor to reach out to a larger audience. It had a great director, producer, music, action, romance, emotion and drama. It is a perfect film which came at a perfect time in my life.”
When he started working on ‘Shamshera’ he was fresh off the success of ‘Sanju’, was there initially a mirroring of personalities since there were two Sanjay Dutt’s in the room — one the man himself and second Ranbir — who portrayed him in the film.
Ranbir said, “When I started working on Shamshera Sanju sir was not cast at that time.”
He continues, “I have so much love and respect for him not just as an actor or a personality on screen but also as a human being. I was ecstatic that I was finally getting an opportunity to work with my screen hero, in a film. He is a person who has gone through so much in life.”
“And has played Kancha Cheena which definitely is one of the greatest villains of Hindi cinema”, the actor lauds his hero.
He fails to understand why there’s a certain perception about Sanjay Dutt among the masses. “There’s a certain perception about him in the minds of people, it could be created by the media or something but he is a very loving person. When Sanjay Dutt was on set the entire unit used to surround him because they wanted to be in his company.”
Prior to the release of ‘Sanju’, Ranbir had spoken during a podcast with the now defunct comedy collective and YouTube channel’AIB’ about his reservation to come on the medium of OTT. The resistance seems to be melting as he has now studied the post-pandemic power of OTT and its reach.
The actor shares, “I have also begun to understand the importance of a new medium and the format which is the OTT. But having said that, I really believe that I have the privilege to be a movie theatre actor to do movies which demand a big screen experience, that privilege is something which not a lot of people have, I respect that and I am very grateful for that.”
“But, if I have an exciting offer of a series or a film comes to me, I would definitely consider it. In the last 3-4 years, I guess we all have changed since things around us were changing so rapidly and I’m no different so yeah, I will definitely like to work on OTT but haven’t been offered anything so far”, he concludes.