EXCLUSIVE | 'Jaat' actor Vineet Kumar Singh on 'Chhaava' success: 'Randeep Hooda calls me purushon ka Rashmika Mandanna'

Vineet Kumar Singh is fresh off the blockbuster success of Chhaava and his new film Jaat just released in cinemas two days back that also stars Sunny Deol and Randeep Hooda. These two desi boys spoke exclusively to Firstpost about their respective roles, the herd mentality of Bollywood, and earliest memories of Deol.

The film has collected Rs 16 crore in two days at the box-office and the weekend is likely to be much better, for the uninitiated.

Edited excerpts from the interview

What are your expectations from Jaat?

Randeep: I hope it’s more successful because it’s more massy, more entertaining. It’s a modern day story so I hope it’s a bigger bigger success.

Vineet: Randeep calls me purushon ka Rashmika Mandanna. You will see this film with a larger number of audience with family. I can say this because now we have shot the film. It will entertain you and there are a lot of values in it. There’s a flavour and tevar of Jaat, you have its swag. You need big villains for big stories and then the hero has to make himself bigger.

Randeep, you recently spoke about Bollywood’s herd mentality. As an actor, how important is it for you not to follow the crowd and create your path?

It’s a tricky situation. Bollywood or the Hindi film industry or any other industry, it’s a business. Whatever product is working, people tend to gravitate towards that. The same kinds of films are made because one has been successful. I have successfully and unsuccessfully tried not to follow the trend and gravitated towards true stories. I cannot say all my choices have been great nor they have been bad.

I’m becoming a part of massy cinema, massy basically means that cuts across a larger section of the audience. After doing Jaat, I want to do more of these films where I can portray larger than life characters which are unbelievable and yet people buy into it. Your journey as an actor keeps changing as you go on. This is a genre I have come back to after a long time.

Vineet, be it Chhaava, Superboys of Malegaon or now Jaat, as an actor, how does it feel getting different roles one after another in the same year?

Creative satisfaction to hamesha se tha. You always get to experiment with different roles as an actor. There was always this dissatisfaction that my work was not reaching a wider audience. That is something that’s happening this year. And whatever little is left, Jaat will take care of it. The way people responded to the trailer, there was so much chatter around it, I’m very positive about the film.

Randeep, how did you prepare for the role of Ranatunga?

Get darker and put the make-up on. This was not a very prep-heavy film. You just had to be present on the film and know the bits about your character as this is a role totally dictated by the director. This is a villain with a certain defect that was required for this particular movie. All the credit goes to Gopi (the director).

Vineet, your film Mukkabaaz has become a cult film. When you were making it, did you know it will be remembered for long?

Jab likhi thi to yehi soch ke likhi thi. People are really worried in our country about daal and roti. So I was clear I would write a character jisme body to banegi. A large population of our country cannot afford to go to a gym. And if they can afford a gym, they cannot afford the diet. My hero wins towards the end of the film because I knew the audiences would be emotionally triggered and root for the character. They would have a takeaway when he wins. Anurag Kashyap felt it was getting too heroic so he changed the end (laughs).

Randeep: Ab hume pata chala kisne satyaanash kiya hai (Laughs).

Vineet: I’m really happy that people still watch the film today. I only feel sad that they didn’t watch it back when it released. Had they seen it back, I would have done at least 10 more films like these. My whole struggle is that I want to earn freedom as an actor to be able to do the work I want to do, but this is an expensive medium so I cannot force myself upon anyone.