Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, who will be seen playing a negative role in the upcoming film ‘Shamshera’, looks very evil, menacing, deadly, and cold-hearted. He says it’s exciting to play the antagonist because “you get to bend the rules, break the rules”.

Sanjay plays Ranbir Kapoor’s nemesis in the upcoming action entertainer.

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Talking about his character, he says, “It is always exciting to play the antagonist because you get to bend the rules, break the rules. I realised that when you play the antagonist, there are actually impositions or moral boundaries. You can be disruptive.

“You can take a character from paper and play it the way you want to. I have a lot of fun when I play an antagonist and I’m fortunate that people have loved my performances as the nemesis of a hero so far.”

He says his character Shudh Singh is a role that has never been seen on screen.

“He is just pure evil. He is menacing, he is untrustworthy and he will go to any length to wreak havoc. I loved the fact that Karan Malhotra created a villain like this and he thought of me to play this role. He gave me a free hand to bring Shudh Singh to life and I hope people like my effort.”

Sanjay was thrilled to know about the casting coup in ‘Shamshera’ that pitted him against Ranbir because four years back (Ranbir’s last film), the young actor had played him in the biopic ‘Sanju’.

He says, “It is also quite interesting that I’m pitted against Ranbir, who played me in Sanju. So, the on-screen enmity between him and me becomes all the more interesting for people. Ranbir is a brilliant actor but this film sees him in a new gaze. His boyish charm is inimitable, but in this film, he is a man who finds his footing and looks glorious on screen.”

Sanjay is collaborating with director Karan Malhotra again after ‘Agneepath’. Sanjay had given us a villain for the ages as Kancha in that film and he is hoping that audiences will shower him with similar love as Shudh Singh in ‘Shamshera’.

He says, “Karan always creates a larger-than-life villain. Be it my character Kancha in Agneepath and now as Shuddh Singh, he knows how to present an antagonist. Personally, I hope he keeps creating more exciting villains for me. He’s someone who hasn’t left the commercial zone of Indian cinema and I have full faith that with ‘Shamshera’ he has whipped up a winner.”

The story of Shamshera is set in the fictitious city of Kaza, where a warrior tribe is imprisoned, enslaved and tortured by a ruthless authoritarian general Shudh Singh. The entertainer is set in the 1800s in the heartland of India.

Directed by Karan Malhotra, the movie has been produced by Aditya Chopra and is set to release in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on July 22.