You have seen him mostly play the conventional romantic hero, some outright fun characters and some serious ones, too. But, actor Ranbir Kapoor is looking forward to shattering all stereotypes with his next film, Shamshera, a period action drama. In a candid chat with us, Kapoor talks about the risk involved in doing a period film and the physical transformation he underwent for this project.

Human beings are born to adapt. Movie-making is a business, but people’s lives are far greater than just thinking about movies. So, there are a lot of life values that people have understood. But, I’m very excited that I’ve got these two films that I’ve been making for the past four years. Both are big-ticket, big-screen entertainment films, and I’m very excited and anxious to see how the audience will accept, react to them.

When you first hear the story of a film, you instinctively decide if you want to do it, if it excites you or not. A film like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), which was more than a modern film, also required a lot of work. In fact, it was harder, as you don’t really have a character to latch on to because you’re feeding off your own personality. But when a film like Shamshera comes, it comes with a lot of responsibility, and you have to make it look believable. Since people have seen me in a certain image for so long, this is probably a genre that people won’t necessarily easily accept me in, but it’s my job to put in the hard work so as to make the audience watching the film forget what my past work was, and believe in the character and the story they’re watching at the current moment.

Yes, period films are harder, as you really have to make that world believable. The audience needs to know the place and time, and they can’t be alienated from that. So, it’s quite tricky when you’re doing a period piece. A movie, on the other hand, is about a good story told in the future, present or past. As long as the story is engaging, entertaining, and the characters are moving you, making you emotional, I think that’s what matters, irrespective of the period the film is based in.

I always think one has to be an actor and an athlete at the same time. It’s always hard when a role demands physical change. Shamshera is about a tribal leader who stands up for the freedom of his tribe. The fight for freedom is a legacy left behind by one kind, and it is now your destiny to restore it to its former glory. And to really make this storyline work, there are a lot of things that went behind it.