"I worked hard to prepare for the dark character in Boss..."

Says the much-admired actor Ronit Bose Roy who in a completely new avatar has managed to impress his fans as well as the critics in his latest film release Boss!

Published: Monday,Oct 21, 2013 13:54 PM GMT-06:00

Seema Matoo

Boss, the masala potboiler released last week, and along with Akshay Kumar we saw Ronit Bose Roy take on the role of a threatening villain in the film. He was seen in the dark role of a cop, Ayushman Thakur in a well maintained physique. For an actor like Ronit who is still popular as Mr. Bajaj in Kasautii Zindagii Kay, it was the first time that he had to take body building seriously. Alongwith that, Ronit had to make lots of preparations for the role.

Talking to TellyBuzz, Ronit says, "Yes, I had to prepare for the role - internally and externally too." It must be challenging. How did he prepare for the same? "Well, internally as an actor this was the first time I was playing an out and out villainous character. That too the character was very, very black who doesn't trust anybody! He is ruthless and wants to do good only for himself and doesn't care for anybody else. He is not respectable and totally a black man. It would have been possible that while doing those scenes I would have gone overboard but I tried to avoid it and have been successful at my attempt. I had to thus get ready for not overplaying the character."

While this was taken care of mentally, Ronit had to prepare to show off a well-toned physique too for the film since he also had hand to hand fighting scenes with hero Akshay Kumar. That was another area on which he had to work on, "I had to do serious body building to look the character. So 12 weeks before the shoot, I started my training and had a special trainer for the same. He made me do stretching, body building, skipping, endurance training which not only gave me a sculpted look it also increased my flexibility. I had to have a body which made me look powerful."

The training also included a strict diet plan which Ronit had to follow, "During the training period I was off rice, biscuits, roti, eggs. I had a regular intake of chicken, boiled chana, sprouts." The foodie in him at this point felt weak says Ronit, "I sometimes had no energy as the entire plan was very strenuous. I was training in the gym twice in the day - morning and evening and then with the strict diet I felt I would collapse but I carried on."

And the result is for all to see. All that hard work must have been worth it with the response that Ronit is getting from the audience as well as from the critics for his performance. Will he now maintain the look? "Yes, I am trying to. I am back to my normal diet and despite being a major foodie I have a healthy diet which includes home cooked food so coupled with regular training I guess it will be easy to maintain the look."

Ronit who is seen as the dashing lawyer in Sony TV's Adaalat says he has made no particular plans for the future, "Since I am happy doing Adaalat at the moment I don't have any time to do anything else on TV. I am getting offers to host shows, participate in dance shows and even couple of daily soaps had approached me but nothing new for me at present."

Another of his upcoming film Ugly too has gained a lot of appreciation in the film festival circuit. Is Ronit happy with his career and is he concentrating on films now? "Boss was an out and commercial film whereas I would call Ugly a realistic commercial thriller. In Ugly, I play a protagonist but again the role is dark. So, yes I guess I am happy to strike a balance between doing films of different genres while at the same time doing a popular TV show but there is lots more that I can do and want to do as an actor. However, I have made no plans as such but yes there are offers for films too."

Till then we wish Ronit soaks in the popularity and rises further with each passing day!

Seema Khot Mattoo