It’s not every morning that you get to chat with a big Bollywood star even before you’ve had your morning cup of tea. So there I was, a bit bleary-eyed with the hot star Riteish Deshmukh on the phone, me in New York and he in Mumbai.
His big movie, the Ram Gopal Varma film ‘Rann’ is being released this month, and so Riteish was chatting up the international media. Interestingly, the film starring a stellar cast headed by Amitabh Bachchan as a powerful media baron, Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav, is all about the media and the price journalists sometimes pay when the line between truth and lies is crossed, and ethics are forgotten in the power game.
For Riteish, who’s often been identified with lighter roles, this intense film offers him a meaty role as Purab Shastri, an idealistic investigative journalist. He says: “Purab is someone who believes in the correct way of presenting news – his life is divided into black and white and he doesn’t believe in grey areas. He wants to give the news to the people, unbiased and unadulterated. He believes as media people we have extremely responsible jobs and have a responsibility to the people.”
Was it a difficult role to play? Says Riteish, “He’s a common guy and except for his thinking, there’s nothing extraordinary about him. You can be Purab in your own office, and it’s not necessary to go a thousand miles to find someone like him.”
How was it to work with the Big B, and a powerhouse cast? The star says he learnt a lot from all of them: “Mr. Bachchan shot a scene for 13 minutes without stopping. If you do a scene for just one minute that’s considered to be a long scene – to go for 13 minutes without a cut is extraordinary.”
What many fans may not realize is that for a full year, Riteish was a New Yorker. Trained as an architect, he worked in New York and got to know the city well, doing a theater course at the Lee Strasberg Studio on the side. “I love New York – its one of my favorite cities. Whenever I get a chance to come to New York, I try to get at least a week or a week and a half to spend time. I love walking around Central Park; I love the Guggenheim, MOMA and the Met. Fifth Avenue is a great place to shop. I love going down to SoHo and I enjoy all the shopping places, like Spring Street. There’s a load of things to do in New York!”
Does he ever miss his life as an architect? “My firm is still active so I really don’t miss much because whenever I get the time I go back and make the most of it,” he says.
The son of former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh and the brother of an MLA, he’s probably the only non-political person in a family of politicians. Does his political background help or hinder his career? He says, “It doesn’t really interfere – you are on your own and you are what you are. If people here are not bothered by it and you are not bothered by it, then you’re OK with it.”
What’s the real Riteish like? He jokes, “I have no idea – to find out who the real Riteish is, I’d first have to find the fake one!” Is he a party animal or does he prefer spending time at the computer? “I take things as they come. Usually I like to stay back at home and watch movies. I like to spend most of my time with friends -don’t like to party much unless a close friend is throwing the party.”
Try asking Riteish about his personal life, if there is a person of interest in his life, and he responds diplomatically, “In real life, I’m only interested in myself!”
How important is Bollywood to Mumbai? He corrects me, “We don’t usually call it Bollywood – we hate the word Bollywood – we call it the Hindi Film Industry and that is synonymous with the city. The Hindi film industry, which has its headquarters in Mumbai is synonymous with the city which itself represents the film industry and the shoots that take place here, and the fact that most of the actors, producers, directors live here- so you cannot remove the city from the film industry.”
Asked about his film inspirations, he mentions first of all Amitabh Bachchan, and the list includes several stars of past years from Mithun Chakraborty and Jitendra to Kader Khan and Mehmood. “I used to love Raj Kapoor and the films he did,” he recalls. “Lately, when I was in college I loved to watch Shah Rukh Khan – that was the last influence I had on me as a person.”
What would be his dream role? He says, “I don’t think of dream roles – I like to make the most of whichever film I work on. I’ve logic to that: If I think of Mr. Bachchan in ‘Sholay’ or ‘Deewar’ or Shah Rukh Khan in ‘Dil Wale Dulhaniyan’ – these films are fantastic because of the fact that they were in them. I can’t imagine myself playing those roles because it wouldn’t be the same. So why think of things that make no sense? I would, however, like to play a negative role soon.”
And that brings us to the crucial question. Was Riteish Deshmukh a big movie buff when he was growing up in India? “Yes, I was. I used to love watching movies; it has always been my pleasure. Everyday, as a child, I used to watch at least three movies, and over the years I’ve watched some of these movies 20-25 times.”
Did he ever bunk classes to go to the cinema? “No, I never bunked classes to go see movies – I always had enough time,” he says. “In fact, I used to do my homework while I watched movies!” A child of the video generation, he says he was too young to go to the theaters, and watched Hindi films on video from the age of three.
“Every day we used to go to the library and get three movies. If it was Sunday we used to sit at home and watch four movies. So you can imagine, in a week we used to watch 10-15 movies, and every second week we used to watch the same film all over again! So there are movies that I have watched over 20-30 times each!” he confesses.
So he was basically brainwashed into joining the movies?
“True, true,” says Riteish cheerfully.
An avid Tweeter, he admitted he had sent out a new tweet just before he got onto the phone for the deluge of international media calls: “I tweeted that I’m back to doing overseas interviews. It’s an art to answer the same questions a thousand times with equal enthusiasm and I’ve mastered it!”
Having answered all my questions like a pro, the master got on to his next international call.
All in a day’s work!
(C) Lavina Melwani
