#RANGOON - Shahid|Kangana|Saif - 24th Feb '17 - Page 5

Shahid Kapoor is growing a beard these days and it has nothing to do with wife Mira. The actor is simply prepping up for a role in no, not Vikramaditya Motwane's next, an urban thriller which kickstarted with a one-day test shoot in the city recently, but for Vishal Bhardwaj's Rangoon. Set against the backdrop of the Second World War, this Casablanca-like love triangle has Shahid reportedly playing an army officer. The beard is integral to his look.

Kangana Ranaut plays an actress from the '40s, while Saif Ali Khan is a filmmaker. Rangoon is a dream Vishal has been nurturing for the last seven years, his most ambitious film to date.

Shahid is known to be a 'method' actor who preps up for months for a character he's playing for reel. For Vishal's earlier film Kaminey, he had to go shirtless and race with the horses in one scene. Since the character, Charlie, was lean, mean and a tough guy from the streets, the actor worked with his trainer for almost eight months, five days a week and two hours a day, for a chiselled, sinewy physique and the run of a sprinter.

Immediately, after the film's release, he went into a two-month overdrive to pack an eight-pack for his next musical, Chance Pe Dance.

More recently, he shaved off his hair for a scene in Vishal's Haider which required him to go bald, then grew it back, only to dye it red, for the upcoming Udta Punjab.

His spokesperson confirmed that the beard is for Rangoon. "There was a lot of pressure on him to hold off growing it but he doesn't like paste-up jobs and wants to be ready with a beard of his own when the film rolls in October," adds the source. "He's really excited about reuniting with Vishal again."

Kangana Ranaut has been galloping two hours a day for Vishal Bhardwaj's upcoming film.

Popular villain-stuntman and horse whisperer Jeetu Verma, who owns a wellequipped stable, home to 20 horses near Film City, has a new student, Kangana Ranaut. Since, August, the actress has been cantering under Jeetu's supervision for Vishal Bhardwaj's upcoming romance-drama, Rangoon. The film, which also features Saif Ali Khan and Shahid Kapoor, is a Casablanca-like love triangle set against the backdrop of the Second World War.

Jeetu, who had earlier trained Shahid for Vishal's 2009-thriller, Kaminey, where the actor was seen racing with a dozen white horses, recalls a call from Vishal informing him that he wanted him to turn Kangana into a champion horse rider. "We have been practising the basics for two hours a day since August. Kangana shows up at 6 am sharp, whenever she is in the city. She is extremely particular about her saddle, boots and helmet. She is a quick learner, buzzing with questions about horse riding," he says.

Two days ago, Kangana took Paris by storm, looking chic in the front-row beside Rihanna, Elizabeth Olsen and Emilia Clarke at a fashion week at the Louvre. She will be completely deglam over the next two months. "All her riding gear will be in shades of brown and she will be wearing paddock boots," says Jeetu, who played a swordsman in the Hollywood film, The Fall. "It would be great to have Kangana gallop with a sword. At our first training session, she told me that this was the first time she would ride a horse in a film and she wants to be perfect. She wouldn't ride till she had her stance right. She has not started training for her stunts yet but she has started caring for the horses and they understand her now too."

Jeetu's family has trained Bollywood actors for the last 40 years. They also supplied horses for Ramesh Sippy's Sholay, BR Chopra's Mahabharat and more recently, Madras Cafe and Action Jackson. "There will be lots of horses and action sequences in Rangoon. Vishal knows exactly what he wants," says Jeetu, adding that the government and the Censor Board are keen to take horses off the streets and out of films. "But I've assured the authorities that there will be no cruelty towards animals in my films," he adds.