Rakul Preet Singh on Runway 34: ‘It is a huge thing to be noticed in front of Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn and for me it never sinks in’

When Rakul Preet Singh was cast alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn in her recent release Runway 34, the actress was obviously excited and she said, “I got that adrenaline rush. It only excites me and pushes me to deliver my best when I am working with people better than me and I hope that translates on screen.” And today when Singh has caught attention and is being lauded for her powerful performance in the thriller, the actress is ecstatic. “Even some directors have made observations which they can understand well, ‘that when Amitabh Bachchan walks towards you, your eyes are showing fear of going back but you are not bodily moving back, now these are such minute details. I hoped but I really didn’t expect this kind of reaction specifically for the performance. It is a huge thing to be noticed in front of Bachchan and Ajay Devgn and for me it never sinks in. We have done the film with complete honesty. It is not flimsy; it is done with a lot of heart. If people and industry notice performances and appreciate me as an actor there is nothing better than that,” says Singh in an exclusive chat with Firstpost post release of the film.

Runway 34  is inspired by the true event from 2015 when the Jet Airways flight from Doha to Kochi had a narrow escape, after facing difficulties in landing at the Cochin International Airport due to bad weather and unclear visibility early in the morning. The film has been directed and produced by Ajay Devgn, who is also playing the lead, the role of a pilot while Singh plays the co-pilot. Bachchan is the officer investigating the incident and later has a face-off with Devgn in the courtroom which follows in the second half of the film.

Further, talking about the courtroom scene with Bachchan, who grills her for the erratic actions of her senior, Singh says showcasing the emotional turmoil through her eyes was her biggest challenge. “There are not many dialogues in those scenes. If you have dialogues then you have something to support your performance. But when you have to emote through your eyes, then that becomes a challenge. For me the challenge was to show Tanya’s dilemma: she is a junior pilot who is stuck in a situation but has to be loyal to her airline and her seniors. But then she also has her own morals, so there is a divide between what her heart is saying and what she has been asked to do. That fear, vulnerability had to be shown. And all those factors had to be showcased through body language and eyes. Even when I am saying a ‘yes’ and a ’no’, I cannot just give out a ‘yes’, I have to take my time to deliver whatever word is coming out of my mouth because I don’t want to say anything, I don’t want to be in that situation,” she explains.

Rakul made her first big commercial splash in Bollywood with De De Pyaar De (2019) opposite Devgn. “Since both the films are very different the atmosphere on set was also very different. De De Pyaar De was a light-hearted commercial film so we could joke around on set but here in Runway because Ajay sir was also the director and it was not an easy film to shoot, it required a lot of attention from him and all of us. We were quite tense. It was a lot of being in the moment so there was no time to actually converse much. As soon as the take was okayed, he was taking the next shot and was checking everybody’s performances. He had seven cameras in the cockpit and 11 in the courtroom. I have never worked with so many cameras in so many films that I have done whether in the South or here. Working with so many cameras come with the sense of knowing your craft very well. Ajay sir’s team is solid, he knows what he wants and because he is an actor, he knows how to make it easy for the actors. He knew that to create that panic and fear in a small cockpit it was difficult and he couldn’t have expected the actors to do it again and again so he put up so many cameras so that everything can be captured together,” says the actress, who has an interesting slate of films set for release, including Anubhuti Kashyap’s campus social drama Doctor G co-starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Shefali Shah; Indra Kumar’s slice-of-life comedy Thank God with Ajay Devgn and Sidharth Malhotra; an untitled film with Akshay Kumar (Hindi remake of Tamil movie Ratsasan), and Ronnie Screwvala-produced social drama Chhatriwali (headlined by Singh) in which she plays a condom tester. “I have a great role in all these films. But I was very excited with the concept in Chhatriwali. It is about a girl who is a condom tester but it is a family film. For me that was the selling point. Today films are such an important medium and if we are able to touch upon such taboo topics and start a conversation in a light-hearted way without being preachy, it is great,” she says.

Talking about her process of choosing projects and whether she consciously goes for those with substantial roles written for her, Singh says, “I don’t think so much. I just go by my instincts. I hope the makers see the potential because you have seen me in commercial films and now Runway 34 is a completely different role and so are my forthcoming films. I hope they see the diversity and I keep getting a variety of roles so that I can prove my mettle. For an actor to feel that I will only choose substantial roles …we also need to have enough scripts for that. There is always a divide between how much of a break you give to yourself till you get a substantial role, or you do mix- and-match. You always have to strike a balance ..there could be a film that I want to work with a certain director, or I want to work with a particular actor, so I am okay as long as my role is impactful. I want to work with…say for example with Ranveer Singh and many other people like that…so I may be okay with a smaller role. But today the trend has changed, women are being given due importance. Runway 34 is primarily about three characters that travel through a film. Both the trailers opened on my shot and my voice, I don’t see how it can be called only an Ajay Devgn film, of course, it is an Ajay directed film, and, of course, their names should come before me because they have been in the industry for so long. After people watch the film, my takeaway would be that if they can still say that Rakul stood ground in front of Ajay sir and Amitji, that is what is important at the end of the day."

Singh made a big impact in regional cinema before she turned to Hindi films. She has established a career in Telugu and Tamil cinema with successful films including Venkatadri Express, Sarrainodu, Nannaku Prematho, Dhruva, Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru and many more. She asserts that language is not a barrier for her and she will continue looking out for good content and maintain a balance between Bollywood and regional cinema. And commenting on the current craze for South cinema, she says, “Today we are talking about the super success of South cinema and that could be because of social media. Many years ago, when Sridevi or Tabu became the biggest stars, they all came from the South, there has been a cross culture since then. Remakes always happened. For me, as an actor, it is not the language but it is the film that I am doing. I owe everything to Telugu cinema because I learnt everything there and then I came here. Here, in the Hindi film industry my filmography is relatively smaller but this year you will see more films. Whenever there is something exciting that I have never done before, irrespective of the language, the film has to excite me whether it is Telugu or Hindi**.** Telugu is my home ground and Hindi has given me a new sense of appreciation, and some great scripts. I am happy with the way my career is going but am I content? No, never. I keep pushing myself, I crave for more. I am hungry as an actor. I want to do a bit of masala entertainers; a bit of this and that,” Singh signs off.

Seema Sinha is a Mumbai-based mainstream entertainment journalist who has been covering Bollywood and television industry for over two decades. Her forte is candid tell-all interviews, news reporting and newsbreaks, investigative journalism and more. She believes in dismissing what is gossipy, casual, frivolous and fluff.

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