Actor Riteish Deshmukh tells Sakshi Sharma that after investing 16 years of his career in Bollywood, he doesn’t feel the need to be ahead or different than anyone
Actor Riteish Deshmukh, who has redefined popular comedy genre like nobody else, seemed quite different in real life — quiet and serious. As he sat in a hall’s corner, entertaining people and giving interviews appeared to be a task for him. When asked if he was tired or sleepy, the actor smiled and said, “No, it’s just been a never-ending month for me!” Indeed, he is set to play a villain after a couple of above Rs 100-crore mark films — Total Dhamal (154 crore), and Housefull 4 (200 crore) — in Marjaavaan.
Even though his roles in films like Grand Masti, Masti, Dhamaal, Housefull 4 might have set a new benchmark as far as the genre is concerned, the actor doesn’t want to confine himself to a single genre and wants to keep exploring. So is this an attempt to rebrand himself? “After being in this industry for 16 years I don’t think I am trying to rebrand myself now. I just want to do better comedy, different roles and films. I also want to explore regional cinema. I want to be in a space where I am happy working with people and enjoy that.”
He feels that he is among the few lucky people of this industry who have got the opportunity to work with legendary actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit and many more. He said, “Just to be there and work with them is great. Everyone comes in this space looking for something. I am happy and satisfied that I got what I was looking for in this industry.”
Marjaavaan, directed by Milap Milan Zaveri, is a love story of Raghu and Zoya. The villain, who is a vertically challenged (dwarf), Vishnu (played by Riteish Deshmukh) is a man with evil intentions, and makes their life hell because of his hatred towards them.
There’s an obvious comparison of the film with Ek Villain as Sidharth and Riteish are together and the latter is playing a villain again. But denying the claims, the actor said that it is a new story and in a completely different zone. He added, “You can see the difference in the trailer itself. Marjaavaan is more massy and dialogue-oriented. At the same time the character is completely different. Also Mohit Suri’s (director) sensibility of film making is completely different from Milap Zaveri’s (director of Ek Villain).” However, Milap is the writer here and was the director of the 2014 hit. So one assumes that the direction of one might be similar to the writing of another. But the actor said, “Writing style is like a colour. Though you may have a single colour but you can make a lot of paintings from that which have different interpretations.”
What excited the actor to go for this role was playing the role of a villain again as he feels it is an unparalled experience. “One becomes a good hero only if the villain is good. Usually, the sequences in a film are such that a threat is created by the villain and the hero has to work on that, there is a hurdle and then he has to work on that. Whenever you cross a hurdle, it excites as it becomes a heroic moment. If you see a big boy beating a small boy there is no heroism. That’s understood. Hence, the importance of a villain is always there,” said he.
Vishnu, who is a vertically challenged has a dark and mean sense of humour. And the entire story has a reason behind his evilness. It is because his father is a huge mafia of Mumbai. And Vishnu feels that his father favours Sidharth more because he is an orphan and is capable of doing the stuff which he can’t. So his insecurity and hatred towards Sidharth grows. “It was exciting. I have always been cracking jokes or laughing in a good manner but this was different. Vishnu’s sense of humour is mean and ruthless. Though he’s a dwarf but all his jokes are about heights like, Khushi ki height kya hai, competition ki height kya hai? (What is the height of happiness and competition?),” said he.
But playing a three-feet dwarf is certainly not easy. There were scenes where the actor had to walk on his knees. Not only that he was also expected to be visually strong. There were sequences where the actor had to look into the blank spaces and say the dialogues with suitable expression. That was more challenging for Riteish. There were times where he even felt like he was handicapped.
When asked if this role enriches his journey or is just a continuity, the actor said that it is a continuity and it is great to be back into the space you wanted to.
After investing 16 years of his career in Bollywood, the actor doesn’t feel the need to be ahead or different than anyone. “Everyone in this industry fortunately gets films and space they want. Few actors are more lucky than the others to be offered a certain kind of role. But I feel there is space for every kind of a film. And an actor is more capable than the roles that he’s stereotyped for. Today’s audience is slightly more receptive towards change. People are excited about me playing this role, so it adds to that acceptability of me doing this. There are various kinds of films and as actors we are open to everything. I would be more than happy in doing content driven films too.”
Photo: Pankaj Kumar
