BOMBAY TIMES (August 10, 2018)

Ranveer Singh, who has worked with Zoya Akhtar in Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), recently wrapped up the director’s next, Gully Boy. The film, which features Alia Bhatt opposite Ranveer, has been inspired by the lives of Mumbai’s street rappers Vivian Fernandes aka Divine and Naved Shaikh aka Naezy.

All praise for his director, Ranveer says that she is different from the other filmmakers he has worked with so far. He shares, “What you admire about Zoya is that her homework is thorough and the casting is bang on. She works with actors prior to the shoot, so when they come on floors, everyone knows what we are aiming to achieve. In Zoya’s film, from the lead cast to the most junior artiste, everyone has been specifically cast. If there is a scene where there are 15 other people, they are all contributing in character to the scene. It makes the process and the shot richer. It is different from many other sets, where you are exploring what to do on the set itself. The process of Gully Boy has been a very reactive mode of performance. A lot of things are happening to the character; it is a classic case of my performance being constructed by my co-actors.”