EXCLUSIVE! Ranveer Singh: ‘Getting into the character & not seeing a trace of me in it is a victory for me'

Ranveer Singh is known for his brilliant craft and like a chameleon he changes and gets into the different characters that he plays. The ‘Simmba’ star received the memento from the hands of actress Sharon Stone for his contribution to cinema as a craftsman.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

Did you always wanted to be an actor?

Absolutely. Some kids if you have watched come to be them naturally that they like to perform and it comes to them naturally to perform. I wasn’t the shy kind ever. As the teachers would write in my report card… he is very vivacious and gregarious and always entertaining the class. That’s how I have always been and that’s the way I am. As far back as I can remember, it was my grandma who gave me the first nudge towards becoming a performer. Perhaps she saw something in me and she thought that I could become a performer. She used to make me get up in the middle of a party and tell me why don’t you dance or sing. It was from that first nudge that I took that and was always inclined towards performing arts in schools and was always involved in theatre, drama and what not. I continued that in college and now I feel I have made a place in life where I am very grateful to have found my true calling.

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I am happy that I have found something that I love to do and that I am good at. Acting is my calling. I am very grateful to God for giving me this opportunity to pursue my passion and entertain people.

Tell us about your interest in cinema …Who were your screen icons?

All my peers were interested in other things like sports, especially cricket. But nothing excited me more than movies even as  a kid. I used to not go to theatres much, but we used to have VCRs at home and used to keep watching movies during my leisure hours and be fascinated by them. I used to be really inspired by the larger than life heroes that we would see in Hindi and also Hollywood movies.

My very first screen idol was Amitabh Bachchan. He is a legend. Since I grew up in the nineties so all the mainstream leading men were my heroes. It started with Amitabh Bachchan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and all the nineties heroes needless to say I was a great admirer of Shah Rukh Khan too.

Hindi cinema had two very significant years: the year 2000 and then the year 2010 when the grammar and syntax of Hindi films started to change especially in 2010 when a new wave of filmmakers were finding different stories to tell. But primarily Hindi movies are multi-genre. They are stretched acting exercises. If you are a hero, you will have to dance, sing and be comical and romantic at the same time. The most surreal thing is to share screen space with the actors that you have grown up admiring like Anil Kapoor and Govinda. I had the honour sharing screen space with them and now recently with Dharmendra in  _Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani_ . All the heroes of the nineties have been my inspiration for me being an actor.

To play Simmba is such a lovable character. And I can’t wait for the audiences to see Singhan 3

How attached do you get to your characters?

That is a constant endeavour for me because acting is a journey of self-exploration. I want to try different things and give my best across genres. When I started my journey as a craftsman I was clear that I would do everything starting from romance to comics to action to drama. And I wanted to test myself in all of these genres. For me growing up when I see other actors and actors who inspire me, they are throughout their lives in their acting career have shown a chameleon like quality. You see two pieces of work featuring the same artist and you can hardly believe it is the same person. To showcase that kind of versatility in my work is my constant endeavour. If I get into the character and don’t see a trace of myself that is the victory for me.