For his portrayal of the legendary Indian cricketer Kapil Dev in 83, Ranveer Singh has garnered immense appreciation.
Opening up about his choice to keep playing challenging roles, Ranveer shared, “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.” Also, he shared with me what he learned from former Indian cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth 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.
In addition, Ranveer mentions that he is highly inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis, the three-time Oscar-winning iconic actor who continually reinvents himself in each movie he does.
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.”
It has been praised unanimously for Ranveer’s masterful transformation into the iconic Kapil Dev character on screen. It appeared that everyone couldn’t see Ranveer Singh on the big screen, but only Kapil.
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.”
Following his appearance in 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’, Ranveer will next be seen in YRF’s ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’.
(With inputs from ANI)
