BEYOND THE CHAOS

Ranveer Singh reflects on the early seeds of being a performer, the long road towards achieving a work-life balance, and the anxieties along the way

- ARMAN KHAN

Gucci Pineapple GG' print bowling shirt, Gucci, price on request; cross earring (worn throughout), Zillionaire, price on request, stainless steel chain, signet ring (worn throughout), both Inox Jewelry, ₹ 3,679 and ₹2,499 respectively

Bombay in the early 1990s was a bright nucleus of peak-Bollywood energy. Govinda films dispersed into the national consciousness from the city, and the fruits of liberalisation first materialised in those five-storey apartment blocks.

But somewhere in 1991, along the Gulmohar-covered bylanes of Juhu, Ranveer Singh would first realise, and quite accidentally so, that performing came naturally to him. He was only six. Impressionable but acutely aware.

“It was a friend's birthday party," he says. “Everyone was busy with it, and my grandmother was getting bored. So, she asked me to dance to Jumma Chumma De De (from the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer, Hum, which released in 1991.)"

Singh recounts how the crowd slowly gathered around him, whistling, cheering him on. “It was the song of the season. The more they'd applaud, the better and more creative I'd get with my antics.”

Almost three decades since that day, that friend texted Singh barely a few hours before our interview. This time, beyond the hum of the Chumma song, his performance as Kapil Dev enchanted her.

Singh reads out the text for me: “I watched it thrice. Everyone loved it. You were so believable. Absolutely excellent, excellent, excellent. Grandparents would've been so proud of you."

He pauses for a moment, gathering his words. It's almost as if he could read it again; I only have to nudge him. There's a perceivable crack in his voice when he reads, "grandparents”. I don't probe him further about the relationship he shared with them. It had to be special.