Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; May 5, 2016)


‘I’ve never done a romantic film before’
Sushant is four films old and the fifth (Dhoni) hits the theaters this September. Raabta will be his sixth release. He tells us, “It will be the first quintessential romantic film for me. I have never done a romantic film before this.” He seems to have forgotten Shuddh Desi Romance. He smiles, “In my second film SDR, my character is a kameena. Nobody in this country will aspire to play the character I played in that film. So I wouldn’t call it a romantic film. The thought we wanted to punctuate throughout that film was how we get confused between what we are supposed to do and what our hormones tell us to do, all the time.” He goes into flashback. “In my first film (Kai Po Che), I didn’t have a heroine. In my third film PK, I was there for 10 minutes, but it was appreciated because of the song with Anushka Sharma. In the fourth (Byomkesh), again there was no love angle.”

‘Pure and divine’
While he is happy to talk about his past releases, he zips up when it comes to revealing the story of his next. Push him and he says, “In Hindi films, romance is something very pure and divine. There might be no sense to it but it’s unconditional. Raabta is exactly in that space,” he explains. The 90s was considered the decade of mushy romances. How different will this one be from other romantic films? “There’s no reference to this film,” Sushant tells us how he chooses his films. “It’s not that I am sitting in a box thinking I will do a script that’s not been done till now. I just read a script thinking nothing. Then, I like it. I don’t know why I like it. Then I read it again and I don’t think about it all. The next morning, if I again go back thinking about the script, I know there’s something to it. There’s no logic or formula,” he adds.

‘Kriti and I instantly bonded’
For any actor to give their 100 per cent to a film, the biggest necessity is the compatibility with their co-stars. Sushant found one of his favourite co-stars in Kriti even before they started shooting. About the first scene they shot, he says, “We did a photo-shoot before we started shooting. Then Dinu (Dinesh Vijan, director) called us to his office and asked us to enact some scenes from the film as a part of our rehearsal and workshop. The scene Kriti and I did together for the first time went great.” Also, the lead pair has similar tastes. And that helped them connect. Both are from Delhi, have studied engineering and are die-hard Shah Rukh Khan fans!

Enough to break the ice, no? Sushant nods, “Kriti and I instantly bonded with each other. She’s an engineer and I was also on that same track. The first time we met and did that scene together, I liked doing it. Dinu loved that scene. There was an instant chemistry. I always found her very promising although she’s only two films old now. I think nobody has actually put her in a position for her to perform. She has a very good screen presence. Right from the first film, although I haven’t seen Heropanti, from the first scene to the end credits we watched Dilwale together. So I am very confident about Raabta.”

‘I am supposed to look good… for the first time’
There’s a particular look that Sushant will have for the film and the actor had been training hard to achieve the perfectly sculpted body for the same. “Yes, for the first time in my career, I am supposed to look good. And by good, I mean to say ‘stylish’. So I worked really hard at the gym. I got a lot leaner and ripped for this film.” Raabta isn’t just another emotional romantic flick, Sushant reveals. “There are also some great action scenes in this film for which I have trained for.” What has he learnt? “I trained in swimming, horse riding and I also learnt a martial art form,” he concludes.