“83”, the film starring Bollywood superstar Ranveer Singh, has received immense praise for its portrayal of legendary cricketer Kapil Dev.
Ranveer spoke candidly about his decision to keep playing challenging roles, saying, “I like daunting challenges. I feel daunted when they are pitched or presented to me. When Sanjay Leela Bhansali comes with Alauddin Khilji or Kabir Khan comes with Kapil Dev or Rohit Shetty with a full-blown masala character like Simmba, initially, I do get rattled, I do get daunted and feel nervous. But it’s nervous energy.” He also shared what former India cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth taught him about this special energy.
“I learnt from Kris Srikkanth, who I have had the good fortune to spend time with during the ’83’ movie promotions. He told me its energy – it cannot be created or destroyed, it can be transmitted, transformed. So, I take this nervousness and I channel it into the energy that I use to pursue this path of transformation. It’s those challenges that excite me and I embrace them fully,” he added.
Ranveer also shared that he gets a lot of inspiration from Daniel Day-Lewis, a three-time Oscar-winning actor who transforms himself with every role he plays.
Ranveer said, “It’s my endeavour to create characters that are distinctive and different from each other because growing up as an aspiring actor I felt most fascinated with those actors who are able to show a wide range in their repertoire, who are able to transform themselves, who can be shape-shifters, chameleons like Daniel Day-Lewis. You see one film of one person and see the other film – it’s like two different people that used to blow my mind. So I endeavour to be that way, I aspire to be that way.”
As Kapil Dev on screen, Ranveer has received unanimous praise for his brilliance in stepping through a complete metamorphosis. There has been a general consensus that Ranveer Singh the actor could not be seen on the big screen.
Talking about his experience, Ranveer said, “Kapil Dev has such a distinctive persona, body language, way of talking, it’s a huge challenge but I was up to it and was excited about it. I was like this is a new challenge, this is something I haven’t done before. There are other instances of villainous characters or these characters – they’ve not got a living reference. It’s a different kind of challenge where you have to create from your imagination. But here I had to become a person who was so well and wide known and recognised. It was very daunting.”
The actor’s next projects include YRF’s ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’, Shankar’s remake of his blockbuster ‘Anniyan’, Rohit Shetty’s ‘Cirkus’ and Karan Johar’s ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’.
(With inputs from ANI)