Glad to channel the masala hero inside him in Simmba, Ranveer Singh says filmography would be incomplete without collaboration with hitmaker Rohit Shetty
Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; December 18, 2018)

It has been a packed day for Ranveer Singh, who has been promoting his upcoming action comedy, Simmba. But he does not mind the frenetic pace - by his own admission, the actor has been "waiting" to be the hero of a Rohit Shetty film. After all, combine the director's mass appeal with Singh's gregarious style and irrepressible energy, and you get the recipe for a box-office blockbuster.

"We did an ad together after which Rohit offered me this film. No one knows this space better than him. You have to earn a Rohit Shetty film. I hope Simmba becomes what we are hoping for it to become, and may there be a string of sequels to it," says Singh of the action comedy that sees him as an unscrupulous cop, Sangram Bhalerao.

His filmography may include many a mainstream movie, but the actor has rarely done a masala potboiler complete with over-the-top action sequences and massy dialogues. It's not surprising when Singh says that he jumped aboard as soon as Shetty mentioned the film. "When I was dubbing for our ad, Rohit said, 'I have a story for you.' I said yes, without pausing to think about it. He gave me a freehand to build this character. You can't question Rohit's films' entertainment value; he has a flair for films mounted on a large scale. His cinematic language is audience-friendly. That's why, he has the most consistent track record amongst his peers."

Singh points out how the first song - Aankh Marey - is already a chartbuster. "I have had some big songs in the past, be it Khalibali, Tune Maari Entriyaan or Tattad Tattad. But this one has blown up. It is important for a mainstream actor to have such songs in his repertoire."