‘I grew up wanting to be a hero’: Ranveer Singh

Ranveer Singh always knew that he wanted to be a part of Hindi cinema. Recalling his boyhood years in Mumbai in the ’90s, the Simmba actor says, “What made me want to join the movies was watching films and wanting to be like the stars of that era. Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda, Anil Kapoor, Akshay (Kumar) sir, Ajay (Devgn) sir, the Khans (Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman), Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik Roshan sir, these are people who have individually and collectively inspired me to be a Hindi film hero. Plans and ideas formed in my head as a child, but I started out by not wanting to be an actor. I always wanted to be a hero, which I am now.”

Speaking of the high he got when he went to watch his latest blockbuster at a cinema hall, the actor says, “One of my dad’s close friends owns a theatre. When he received standees of Simmba, he called to tell us how surreal it was. They have seen me growing up and suddenly there I was on a standee. For me too, the feeling was one of immense joy. This larger-than-life mounting of a Hindi film hero is something I craved for. Going to watch the movie at single screens with the masses is a different high. I am where I dreamed of being. Simmba was my first movie of this scale and mounting.”

He admits that Padmaavat was also a terrific showcase. However, the Rohit Shetty directorial was different because he did it ‘without Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Deepika Padukone’. “For me, this is a big one. I’ve said thank you to Rohit sir many times over,” he grins. And now the ‘hero’ (Simmba) is getting ready to metamorphose into an actor in Gully Boy.