Ranveer Singh took to the stage at the Marrakech International Film Festival on Saturday to discuss his 12-year trajectory from an unknown Mumbai outsider to one of Bollywood’s most famous and best-paid actors.
Speaking in an In Conversation event, the actor revealed he was so green about the mechanics of shooting a feature film when he first arrived on the set of his 2010 breakthrough romantic comedy Band Baaja BaaraatHe’d never seen a boom mice before.
“My co-actor, the beautiful Anushka Sharma had done one feature and she held my hand through that entire process. I was so basic that in a talking scene on the first day, there was a person standing there holding the boom mike, and I’m looking at Anushka, saying “Is this guy going to stand there like that the whole time?’,”He remembered.
“When I see this movie now, I don’t know how I pulled it off with that lack of experience… It’s like you know, when Eminem says, ‘You’ve got one shot’,” continued Singh, then breaking into a rendition of the U.S. rapper’s 2002 track Losing Yourself. “It was sink or swim, do or die.”
Some 12 years on, Singh’s filmography encompasses more than 20 feature credits including costume drama Bajirao MastaniParis-set romance BefikreThe controversial history of romance PadmaavatFunny, corrupt cop comedy Simmba, cricket drama 83A street rapper’s coming-of-age story Gully Boy.
Singh recalled how he tried to get into Bollywood cinema for three and a half years. He decided to follow his childhood dream and act after seeing a student production. While studying copywriting, Singh discovered his passion for being in front of an audience.
“I didn’t have a road map. It was like groping in the dark, flapping my hands and legs and trying to catch hold of something,”He said. “I joined theatre groups. I became an assistant director. I was doing different things within the Bombay film industry to find some kind of lead. I spent a lot of time staring at the ceiling wondering, ‘Is it ever going to happen for me?’”
Singh, who was in his mid-20s at the time, also had contact with a darker side of Mumbai’s film industry. Singh recounted the story of how a prominent producer, who had invited him to a party for fun, had unleashed his dog upon him. He also shared stories about how he had had brush with the casting couch.
“This guy calls me to this seedy place and is like, ‘Are you a hard worker, or a smart worker?’. I didn’t consider myself to be smart, so I said: ‘I think I’m a hard worker.’ He was like, ‘Darling, be smart, be sexy’. I had all those kinds of experiences during those three-and-a-half years, and I think it was that period that makes me value the opportunities I have now.”
BeyondBand Baaja Baaraat, Singh said a life and career-changing moment for him had been working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali on the Romeo And JulietContemporary romance inspired by the Renaissance RamLeelaDeepika Padukone was born on this day, which is also the date he met Deepika Padukone. Bajirao Mastani.
“He molded me to be the artist I am today. I learned so much about films, life, and art from him. For me, there is a before Sanjay Leela Bhansali and an after Sanjay Leela Bhansali.”
Singh also shared the extreme measures he took to become a character early in his career, before he was able to develop his acting skills.
The romantic drama is his third feature. LooteraIn the film, he portrays an archaeologist who is accidentally shot in the leg. He also explained how he physically recreated the pain to achieve the right look for his shot.
“I was so raw at the time. I lacked the tools that were required to create that effect. I was thinking to myself I’ve never really experienced that level of pain before so let me try to recreate it,”He said.
“I used to take these very industrial grade clips and clip them to my hip in the morning, do hair and make-up, and then travel to set. It would collect all of this blood and be very tender… When they said, roll camera, I would hit it and pain would go from the tip of my toe to my hip. I was actually recreating that degree of physical pain because I did not know how to do it.”
Singh claimed that he has stopped using these painful and physically damaging techniques, but he revealed that he had gone to great lengths in order to portray the evil Sultan Alauddin Khailji in the 2018 historical drama Padmaavat.
The film was one of the most expensive Hindi productions. It caused controversy for its portrayal of Khilji (a 14th-Century ruler) and its depiction of good or evil along Hindi-Muslim lines.
“This was a bit harmful, this character,”Singh. “Trying to create Khijil, I couldn’t wrap my head around a person who allegedly committed genocide. The kind of things I read about this guy and what he did is unimaginable. I was asking myself how can I play this with conviction. They say he killed 30,000 soldiers and made a giant pillar of all their skulls to deter invaders from coming down that path again.”
Singh rented a small apartment in the suburbs. He called it “Singh’s place.” “a cave”He read about tyrants in the book and was subjected to darkly-themed music and film at the movie.
“I locked myself in the apartment for the longest amount of time. I was watching Lars Von Trier films, listening to Krzysztof Penderecki’s soundtrack from The Shining. I was only engaging with these very dark and disturbing themes,”He said.
“I watched Nymphomaniac 1 & 2 back-to-back. I’d shut the lights and I’d play The Shining soundtrack and try to feel the music, I was doing all sorts of crazy things to get in touch with whatever darkness might be residing in me – I believe everyone had a bit of darkness in them. Do that from morning to night, around the clock for long enough and you become an animal.”
Singh also ate a lot of meat. “It was a tough period. I changed my diet, to start with the gut. I ate meat morning, at lunchtime and night. I was sweating mutton. It made me a very aggressive person. I don’t think I was a very pleasant person to be around.”
Singh was asked if there are any roles he has not yet tackled and if he would be interested to do so. He said that he received letters from fans requesting to play these roles. “slick actioner, spy kind of movie,”In the spirit of Jason Bourne and James Bond franchises.
Responding to the moderator’s suggestion that he would make a good James Bond, he replied: “Shall I audition here? …You know what everybody put that energy out into the universe. Let’s see me as James Bond, the first brown James Bond, I love it.”