Ayan and me are married for life: Ranbir

Ranbir Kapoor is so charming and adorable that my fondness for him just keeps growing every time I meet him.

His charm comes not just from his good looks and excellence in acting, but also from him being so affectionate and grounded. He has chosen to stay away from social media and guards his private life fiercely, so his only connect with his millions of fans is through his films. They may have missed seeing him in 2014 due to no release, but his upcoming films in 2015 will more than make up for that, be his lead roles in Bombay Velvet, Tamasha and Jagga Jasoos or his supporting role in Roy. While Ranbir considers himself lucky for the opportunity to be able to work with the best of directors, be it Imtiaz Ali, Anurag Basu, Karan Johar or Ayan Mukerji or actresses like Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma, Deepika Padukone, or now Alia Bhatt, the fact is that every director and actress in India wants to work with him. He is true-blue RK. Over a meal of haleem, roti and chocolates, he talks to Bombay Times about all his films over the next two years. Excerpts:

Let's first talk about your role in Roy?

Vicky (Vikramjit Singh, the director of Roy) has been a childhood friend of mine, somebody I have shared all my personal, my professional life with. He is someone who struggled to get his movie on the floor. So finally, when he wrote Roy, he came to me to do a special appearance and got Bhushan Kumarji as a producer. I thought it was a good film and had good intentions, so slowly slowly, the role extended and it became a good supporting part to the main leading characters of the film that are played by Arjun Rampal and Jacqueline Fernandez. So, I am very excited for Vicky. I feel he worked really hard and deserves a release.

Bhushanji has immense knowledge about music and therefore, has made an immense contribution to the film with the kind of music he has given to it, so it seems like an exciting film right now. But I don't want to cheat my audience. Yes, I am a part of this movie, but this is not my film. It's an Arjun Rampal, Jacqueline Fernandez-starrer with me playing a supporting role in it. There were stories claiming that you were responsible for the delay in the release of Bombay Velvet, which is now releasing May 15, 2015. What was the real reason? I read stories claiming that my father had seen my film, not liked it and hence it was postponed. My father never sees my movies before the release. He never comes for any trial prior to release, as he doesn't want to give a very strong opinion. He sees my films only post release. Then, some people said it is over budget. We actually shot the entire film with all its songs, action and ensemble cast, in 80 days in Sri Lanka. Then, somebody said it's four hours long. The cut is actually 2 hours 19 minutes. I saw the film a few days back and I absolutely loved it. It's a new film for me and I am excited. I hope with the trailer, our promotion and our marketing, that perception changes and it entices people to see the film. I feel it is very brave of the Phantom people to have postponed the film on their own terms. Being a producer, you always want to release your film, but they wanted to better the film. They wanted to make sure that the film is to their optimum and that takes a lot of guts. I really admire Phantom and Anurag Kashyap to have taken that call. I was not involved in that call at all.

Was it postponed for editing?

It was postponed for editing. And, it was postponed for special effects to make the film better. Also, Fox, who were releasing the film, wanted to give it a good platform for release and for that, your film has to be ready, you have to travel with it and show it to different markets, so we are trying to do that. We all have belief in the content of the film. It has a very engaging story that people will connect with. It's about a man, Johnny Balraj's ambition and how he gets caught in his own desires and greed. I was really happy to work with Anushka Sharma, as she is such a phenomenal actor. When she speaks her lines, you feel she has written it. A lot of people were surprised when Karan Johar was cast as the villain, given the personality he has. But he is so amazing in the film.


ALSO READ: Ranbir Kapoor to promote Roy from February 1

Is this your best work so far?

As an actor, you never consider any film to be your best film. It's only the audience who can feel like that, post seeing it. But yes, you get excited by a certain film and the character and it stays with you. My character in Bombay Velvet, Johnny Balraj, was new to me. It was not like my personality. He is arrogant, brash and had grown up in the slums on Falkland Road in Bombay in the 1950s. I could identify with my characters in a Wake Up Sid or a Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, but playing Johnny Balraj took me time to find my rhythm, but it was very exciting.

Talk about Imtiaz Ali's Tamasha?

This is my second film with Imtiaz Ali. It's about a man who breaks out from the regular race of life and starts living his dream again. That's what Imtiaz is trying to say. We all have our dos and don'ts in life and all get stuck and become this machinery in life, where we forget what we all dreamt of as a child. What he is trying to say is very important in our day-to- day life. Of course, at the heart of it, it is a love story.

What about Anurag Basu's Jagga Jasoos?

It's a very hard and exciting film. I play a detective in high school, who stammers. Every thing is done in a musical format, so even when he sings, he stammers. At the heart of Jagga Jasoos, it's about a young boy who wants to find his stepfather, who has gone missing. And he has to use his brain, his intelligence, the power of his mind, to find out where his father is. It's in the format of an Indiana Jones, a Tintin. But it's such a new film with no precedent or reference. Every dialogue or scene leads to a song. Pritam and dada (Anurag Basu) are working really hard to get that synergy and make it seamless. Dada and me used to discuss that India does not have a good film for children which they can call their own and with Jagga, we want to make a good franchise film.

Talk about Ayan Mukerji's film?

Ayan is trying to write something that is beyond his years. It's a mythological contemporary world. It's on the premise that people who don't believe in magic, don't see it at all. He wants to spend the next ten years of his life on this trilogy that he wants to make. So he has to write the entire story before we start the film. It's about a boy who has a certain magical superpower. And how he discovers that and how he battles with his own personality and emotions.

So you and Ayan are tied up for his next three films?

Yes. I think Ayan and me are married for life. I would feel most disappointed if Ayan makes a film with any other actor. Because apart from being the good friends that we are, I really believe that that boy has a lot of things to say and he says it in a very engaging way. Alia is also there in the film.

So, will she too be a part of the trilogy?

Yes.

Talk about Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil?

Karan and I were discussing another film which he was to make and he felt that he must offer that to another actor, but suddenly, he returned from New York and called me to say, 'I have a new story. I have written it in a week's time and am extremely excited about it.' Even after being Karan Johar, he is still childlike about the stories he wants to say. He narrated the story to me in his house, it was beautiful and I was doing it. So I will do Karan's film before Ayan's film. Karan has a stellar cast. I am so excited to work with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for the first time and again with Anushka.


What does it mean for you to work with Aishwarya?

I knew Aishwarya since I was a child, as I was an assistant in my father's film Aa Ab Laut Chalen. I was only 15 then and in Class X, but Aishwarya and me struck a friendship. We would chat about her and her life and she would treat me her age. She would treat me like a friend and not like a child and was good to me. Even now, she is exactly the way she was then. There is nothing that has changed about her. Apart from her beauty and her achievements that the world already knows, to me, she will always be the girl who hung out with me on my father's set.