Describe Kill Dil – the film as you understand it.

Kill Dil doesn’t fall into trappings of scale and canvas. People often show the scale for the heck of it. Our film stays with the characters and remains focused. It has a narrative and walks towards it without wasting time on floss and what the story doesn’t need.

The best thing about Kill Dil is that it remains with its characters; whether you see a song or an action sequence. That’s the entertainment package. But you feel the film from the character’s perspective. You might be watching action but you are with the characters and with the story. That remains throughout.

The predominant flavour of the film is its humor. It has romance and action in bits but what I love about the action is it is real. Gunday had many action sequences. It was much more inclined towards delivering a commercial spectacle. In Kill Dil, the action comes as you follow a story. It’s not action for the sake of action, songs for the sake of song.

It’s one of those rare films where the soul of the story is beaded with the spectacle of the film. It doesn’t look enforced. Till the last frame you are with the characters and their highs and lows, staying honest to film and characters. I didn’t expect this actually but it took me completely by surprise and I said, ‘Man! I saw a good film.’ I got very emotional.

Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Gulzar have created music for your film. What do you like the best about the album?

The music is not created to be a pop album which stays with you just for two weeks. Without taking names, we have a current trend that you make a movie, then you get some hit songs which will be all over the radio for three weeks and then disappear. There is a separate music video shot for it. Fair enough, it flows out of an entirely different movie marketing approach.

There is no longevity and clearly I have nothing to do with such songs. Kill Dil’s music is very rich, it has many layers to it and the best part is that it is designed especially for the film. It must be consumed in the film context. For instance, when I saw the film and I saw Bol Beliya it amazed me. My favourites have changed. It comes at such a point in the film that it traps you with its drama. It grips you when you see it in a film context.

Tell us about your preparation for the role and your look in the film.

I am an actor who does heavy characterisation. There is a criticism of this approach which resorts to being ‘gimmicky’ apparently- changing hairstyles, way of walking. Your characterisation is all surface level gimmicks, but I find it exciting.

Don’t you think I look younger than Band Baja Baarat? I was pretty skeptical. I don’t have great facial features for me to not have a beard and expose my bulbous nose. Having a moustache draws attention away from it. My agenda is to look my character and not to look good. When Shaad Ali (Director of Kill Dil) told me I need to colour my hair, put on a little weight, I saw he was very sure of it. I did not need to look lean. The problem with lean is that you look like a hard sharp person. This guy is very soft, light hearted. Ali looks like a brute, he is a badass. He is meant to look hard, I was to look soft.

Click to find out why Ranveer Singh calls Govinda a masterclass in itself.

http://www.pandolin.com/cant-get-eyes-govinda-ranveer-singh/

– By Priyanka Jain