Smooth Operator

Ranveer Singh’s meteoric rise is testament to his multifaceted personality, because at heart, he’s an entertainer. And, a hustler.

- Tanya Mehta

It’s a sun-soaked day in Havana and Ranveer Singh is snickering at a supposedly ‘phallic’ cactus in a corner. Dressed in a flimsy knit shirt and vest, he will later mention how he likes to show off his “sexy pits”. Garrulous, comical and impulsive, Singh is on set (at Famous Studios) channeling, in his own words – a Cuban Sex God, as he breaks into a bout of salsa, whether the camera is filming, or not. But this isn’t the Ranveer Singh we met a week back. Then, he was fresh off his return from the Berlinale, and teetering on the precipice of Gully Boy’s release – a film so highly publicised and eagerly anticipated, the build-up to which saw Singh rap on runways, stages and Instagram, wearing the grit of his character like second skin. However, away from the white noise, in his hotel room, Singh is pensive and solemn, his polychromatic tracksuit seems almost incongruous. While the foreign press hailed his turn as Murad as ‘the best performance of his career’, the true litmus test, however, would be with its national release, which we now know is a bonafide hit. “It’s nerve-racking actually, this wasn’t my default mode of acting as compared to my role in Simmba, which was very front-footed and came to me naturally. It was different because you aren’t driving everything by action and dialogue, you are reacting to what’s happening around you, and honestly, my performance is structured largely by my co-actors,” he says.