A year ago, had everything worked as planned, Randeep Hooda’s international film, Extraction, which was released on a digital platform, would have had a mega premiere in the US. The actor is now in talks for more international projects and an announcement might be made soon. When asked if he has achieved what he intended to with the film, Randeep says, “Yes, I have — I have widened my audience base and opportunities for the future, built great relationships, and finally, done action and combat scenes in my movie. Although, I have an action-hero image, I have barely done action scenes in our movies here. So, that was a new genre to explore, and it came to me at a time when I had spent three years prepping for a movie that was shelved. I was in a dark space.”

Around the time of the film’s digital premiere, Randeep had said, “Maybe they didn’t like my acting,” when he was asked about Bollywood’s cold reaction to his Hollywood project. Bring this up, and he shares, “I was asked that Bollywood which lauds a poster launch, a teaser launch or a blink-and-miss appearance of an actor in a Hollywood film had not said much about my work. I responded to that saying that maybe they didn’t like my acting man…”

Randeep, who was recently seen in Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai, admits that he does find himself in a better place on the international film circuit. “Their industry has just opened up and conversations have begun. Talks are on and I hope one of them materializes soon. They don’t want people to travel there right now looking at the situation that exists here and everywhere else in the world.”

After a two-decade career, one wonders if Randeep, who has barely had 50 releases, has figured where he’d like to head from here. Randeep says, “I want to do more action films now. I enjoy that genre and want to expand myself as an actor where I need to prepare and change myself in every way and experience another life. I feel fortunate that 20 years down the line, filmmakers find me exciting and unexplored. I am offered challenging work, and I hope it continues. I hope that I can keep doing challenging things till the day I die. I saw Anthony Hopkins in The Father. To win an Oscar for the best actor at his age is so amazing. It tells actors what they can do even when they get older. He’s brilliant. There is no end to roles and craft. It keeps getting better as long as you stay interesting and interested.”

The actor further adds, “Staying relevant is about a whole juggernaut of things that you need to do, which are not entirely in your hands. Keeping yourself interested in your work, trying to be better at it and translating thoughts into your work while connecting with yourself is in your control. I am going to keep doing that.”