Sushant Singh Rajput ADMITS to slipping into Dhoni's character while shooting for other projects!

Sushant Singh Rajput’s next film is up for release. And he faces a dilemma. In his last film, he convinced the audiences that he was Dhoni. In Raabta, he plays a character that is nothing like the cricketer, and has to convince the public that he is this character. No biggie. That’s an actor’s job. But, this is a special case because so many months of work went into becoming MSD. And Sushant admits that he still slips into the cricketer’s character subconsciously and has to check himself. Here, SSR talks about the trouble with playing someone else all the time. Read on...

Do you think your generation of actors, relies too much on prep? Isn’t acting all about instinct?

Preparation is required. I will tell you why. Acting is such a delicate job. You know that I am not Dhoni, but you are buying a ticket. So, it’s my job to become him and convince you that I am him.

A senior actor says, ‘Hamare zamaane mein yeh sab nahi hota tha, hum log acting dil se karte the’. Agree?

I guess it is a very frequently-confused topic. People ask me, ‘Oh, there are method actors and there are spontaneous actors’. There is always a method to spontaneity. It is just that anybody who is confident can learn his lines... The thing is, you prepare for a while so that you start behaving in a certain different way to what comes naturally to you. So you change your spontaneity from each and every film, that’s what you are required to do as an actor. Hence, there has to be a method and also time with it, so that you deliberate repetitions. You do it so many times that it becomes a part of you. 

But that doesn’t mean I will not prepare and will have the same spontaneity in each and every film. And I will still be a good actor.

Your Dhoni prep worked. You transformed into MSD on screen.

Thank you. It takes a lot to convince the audience what you are watching could be true. As an actor, I have just those two hours to convince you that I am somebody else. Then in the next film, I need to convince you that I am also somebody else. And the characters that I play are diametrically opposite. There is not even an iota of similarity between them. Still, I have to make sure. That is the tricky thing.

Did you find that even after Dhoni film was over you were walking and talking like him?

Yes. The mannerisms still come sometimes and I ask myself: Why am I behaving like this? I think I am also every character that I have played. And there is a certain thing that has stayed with me.

Dhoni persona is very evident.

Because, there is a reference right?

Correct, because one has been seeing him for years.

I was watching a video of mine yesterday — I am self-obsessed like that for some reason — in this Vogue shoot, I had to take my shirt off and walk. And suddenly I was like, ‘Why am I walking like Dhoni?’ So yes, it happens. It still happens.