Divya
Randeep Hooda is one of the finest actors in our nation. The star has also ventured into Hollywood (film – Extraction) and is now going to be seen in Salman Khan’s ‘Radhe’.
Chatting with Pinkvilla, Randeep explains why he prefers the simple lifestyle and what changes the film industry might need!
Hooda starts off with how he prefers not getting into the typical Bollywood lifestyle. “There is a life that I want to lead and that ideal Bollywood life of dressing up and going to these parties and being a part of the self-congratulatory cliques– you know, the kind of a system that exists – No, I don’t miss it. My life has been about trying to live my characters, trying to live life as away from the trappings of it as much as possible; so that I don’t lose touch with the reality of life. Once you lose touch with the reality of life that’s where it starts to show on screen. You start to appear unreal. So, I have always kept that around me. It’s my ideal lifestyle I don’t have to copy anybody.“
He then says, “In fact, I have not given into the kind of culture that we have in the industry. There is certain sycophancy; there is a certain way of dealing with people. Everybody is an artist and so I feel and always have felt at par with everybody. There should be a sense of respect, which is there. But apart from that, I have not catered to that kind of a mindset.”
Talking about his work Hooda says, “I’m just an artist. I’m just an actor. I have done movies of all genre. I have done Hindi movies. I have done commercial movies. I have even delved a little in song and dance in a couple of movies; I was not very great at it. There was a time when songs of a film used to take the screenplay forward. But now, it’s more of a disruption. I want to move on and watch the story. The industry always measures it from the point of view of numbers and who they like to cast. That star system has to change.“
The actor then talks about the industry saying, “We have got a huge industry but we’re not really able to compete with the world because [ideally] the script comes first and then the casting is done according to the script or the story. Here, you have to cast a star and then the story is built around. Therefore, a lot of inappropriate casting happens where you know the storyteller is also not left with much to play. This system, obviously, has to change. It has to be about the story, the script, and then you cast actors according to who suits that character the best. Rather than just going for those few names because they are the stars and everybody else is kachra – that’s not the case. It has to be more about storytelling than just be about you know pandering to a star system.”
