"I wish that I could do a movie, which people would like to remake" - Randeep Hooda 
By IndiaFM News Bureau, January 18, 2007 - 01:53 IST
From being a waiter, bar-tender, car-washer, cab-driver to finally making it big in Bollywood, Randeep Hooda has come a
long way and made his mark with just 4 releases. In an exclusive interview with IndiaFM, the brawny actor Randeep
Hooda talks about his journey in Bollywood and the his role with Vinod Khanna in the movie Risk
Is it true that you were a cell-phone salesman for a year before you started acting?
I was not specifically a cell-phone salesman, I was a student and while I was a student I was working in lot of odd jobs. I never
sold cell-phones. I did market a telephonic company door-to-door and I did a lot of other odd jobs from being a waiter to bar-tending
to car washing to lot of things and my longest job was that of a cab driver. So I was never really a cell-phone salesman.
How was the journey from there to Bollywood; how did films happen to you?
While I was driving cabs, I used to have all kinds of people in my cab, from junkies, to CEOs, to film stars, to sport stars to artists
and I realized that the happiest people are not the people who have the maximum amount of money but the happiest people were
those people who did what they loved to do. Then I rattled my brain and I came up with what would you really love to do and I
went back to acting, which I used to do a lot in school. I decided that I am not going to work for another day in my life and see I am
not working still.
Tell us about your co-stars.
Working with Mr. Vinod Khanna was a great honour since I have been a fan of him since I was a child. My parents are also great
fan of his, he is very enigmatic man, very charismatic, very simple at that, very spiritual. It would be really wrong for me to
comment on his screen presence because everybody knows of that. He was a great influence on the sets, he did not make us feel
like we were newcomers at all and his presence in the movie is really boosted our moral. He is absolutely wonderful.
| Risk is how Randeep Hooda would be as a cop
with the influence of Daya Nayak thrown in. |
Tell us about working with Tanushree Dutta.
Tanushree is a very beautiful charming girl and she was very forthcoming with whatever she wanted to do in the film. She came on
time, remembered the lines and seriously she is a great pleasure to work and I hope that I will work with her again.
What do you think about her acting skills?
I cannot comment on another actor’s performance, especially in my own film but I am sure it has come out great. I do not think that
anybody has ever seen her like this. So she is going to be a surprise package in her performance but I really have not seen any of
her other works. So I cannot comment on how she is in this film in comparison to others but I think she is wonderful and she is a
very smart girl.
What is the risk in the movie ‘Risk’?
There is no risk in ‘Risk’. As an actor there is no risk and as a character, the character is interesting because it knows that we
have to take some amount of risk in life.
| I do not really believe that going and observing
people for specific roles really helps because it is your observation through your life that helps. |
What kind of homework had you done for this film – also tell us about your meeting with Daya Nayak?
I do not really believe that going and observing people for specific roles really helps because it is your observation through your life
that helps. I had seen cops earlier, I had seen cops in films and somehow I felt that I could bring more authenticity to it, so I met
Daya, who is a great friend of mine, is a very nice guy, he is very helpful, he came forth and helped us out in it. I took little details
because he is very well turned out cop and he has got a very larger than life attitude. Daya is the real Nayak and I am just the
Nayak in the film.
So I learned little nuances of the eyes of a cop and the way he dresses and the way he addresses people, what he thinks for him,
what his attitude towards criminals and stuff like. But my personal thing is based on Daya Nayak, the movie is not Daya Nayak’s
story, it is totally fictitious. This is how Randeep Hooda would be as a cop with the influence of Daya Nayak thrown in.
| Daya is the real Nayak and I am just the
Nayak in the film. |
When can we see you in the roles other than that of police and criminals?
You would definitely see me in other roles and that too very soon. I have done one movie ‘Rubaru’ with a different role than these
kinds of roles, and my next movie too would be with a different kind of role. For nothing else, if I do other films and I enrich my
craft then I can come back and have more to this genre. If I keep doing this genre, it will become stale and you people would not
enjoy watching me. And that’s if you do enjoy watching me right now.
| If I keep doing this genre, it will become stale
and you people would not enjoy watching me. And that’s if you do enjoy watching me right now.
|
Now-a-days everybody is making remakes of old movies, is there any role which you would like to do?
I wish that I could do a movie, which people would like to remake.
Tell us something about your role in the movie Risk?
My character’s name is Inspector Suryakant Satham, and I do not know about others, but I am seriously in love with that guy.
When I watch the film, sometimes during dubbing, I feel I wish I was that guy and if that feeling is communicated in any sense it
will be a great victory.
He is a very straight forward no nonsense person. He does not blame the system; he is not making a hoo-haa about this system
because he understands that the system is also made up of people. So he goes about doing what he has to do without blaming other
people and in turn, he makes sacrifices of all kinds, whether it is personal or professional but he goes about trying to achieve what
he feels he should do as the responsibility of being a cop and the responsibility of being a human being and a part of the society and
that kind of righteousness without being preachy. We are not making statements about system. System is a system, what you can
do being a part of the system is the story of Suryakant Satham.
| We are not making statements about system.
What you can do being a part of the system is the story of Suryakant Satham. |
How is Vishram as a director?
Vishram is a genius. As I said, indeed Vishram is a genius. I was yet to figure out in what but now with this film, I think he has
done a good job. He is a great pal of mine and sometimes it feels like I am married to him because we have done two very lengthy
films together. He is quite a brain, who thinks of all these things.
Somewhere if careers are looked back upon, Vishram would definitely feature as one of the people who formed my career the way
it is.
What about your forthcoming films?
I have decided what I want to do. I will talk about it when the time is right.
|
Is Randeep Hooda doing an Aamir Khan?
