Ranveer Singh reunites with his 'Gully Boy' co-actor Alia Bhatt in Karan Johar's 'Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani'. Ahead of the film's release on July 28, Ranveer flew down to Kolkata with co-actor Alia Bhatt for the film's promotion. Our correspondent Souvik Ghosh reports.
C to I: How did it feel slipping into the world of Karan Johar?
Ranveer Singh: It was very fulfilling. I always had this dream of working with Karan Johar. I had pictures of a bunch of directors on my wall (on the wall of my room). I used to manifest that someday I would work with them and that list included Karan Johar. So this is a great, big tick of a box for me from my life and career perspective that I get to be the leading man in a Karan Johar film. Wow! Even now it feels surreal for me.
C to I: How was reuniting with Alia Bhatt?
Ranveer Singh: It's pretty amazing. It's my second collaboration with Alia. It's been a while since we had shot that movie ('Gully Boy'). Both of us have evolved as individuals since then. I met a beautiful version of Alia during 'Gully Boy' and an even more beautiful version of her now. She is very, very dear to me as a friend. It is an honour and a privilege to act with her because in my estimation, she is one of the greatest performers we had in Indian cinema. We all have witnessed what she did in 'Gangubai Kathiawadi'. She is just getting started. She is one of my favourite actresses and she elevates my own work. I cannot emphasise that enough.
I always say it's so delightful to work with her. One just shows up, be present, submit and surrender to your co-actor and things just flow. When one has that degree of trust in a co-actor and where there is such a free flowing exchange, it really leads to something special, so I hope that in the years to come also, we keep collaborating and creating some milestones in Indian cinema.
C to I: What did you do to make sure you don't stereotype the Bengali culture through your role?
Ranveer Singh: I feel when we are depicting certain troves of certain cultures, we should be open to keeping things light. I am somebody who can very easily take a joke on myself. I am cool with it. I feel like this is Karan Johar's most humorous film and I hope that the audience senses that from the trailer and comes in to have fun and a good laugh.
C to I: Is there any similarity you found between yourself and Rocky?
Ranveer Singh: I always feel every character has some part of us. There are several similarities between this character and mine. There are some characters that I find are very far away from what I am perhaps. I would like to believe that I can go any distance and be anything. Having said that, there are some characters that I find more similarities. Rocky is such a character who is full of life, loves his family, wears his heart on his sleeves. I feel like somewhere knowing that he was going to cast me as Rocky. Karan added a few things in the writing process that he felt would suit me nicely.