“D uniya ka sabse khatarnak janwar insan hi hota hai (The world’s most dangerous animal is the human being),” he says in a threatening voice.
That’s Randeep Hooda, known for playing dark, brooding characters, offering a memorable line from his latest film, “John Day”, which hits theatres this Friday.
Excerpts from a conversation with the actor who was in the Capital recently.
Tell us something about your role in “John Day”
I am playing the character of Gautam in this film. He is very arrogant and a prude by nature and enjoys inflicting pain on others.
In his life there is an Iranian girl named Tabassum Habibi who is very addicted to alcohol and the life of both of us is very desolate.
How is “John Day” different from your other movies and how was the experience working with Elena Kazan?
The treatment and concept of John Day are different from my other movies.
When Solomon told me that the actress of this film was born in Ukraine, grew up in Berlin and did her higher education in the U.S., I wondered would she be able to speak her dialogues in Hindi or would I have to just yawn on the sets! But when I heard Elena, I concluded that language was not at all an issue for her.
Overall it was nice working with her and she was very convincing as a young alcoholic women. I hope she will go places.
After your small role in “Monsoon Wedding” you are once more appearing coming second time with Naseeruddin Shah and you are playing against him. How was the experience working with him?
Yes, my role in “Monsoon Wedding” was very small and I was not even in the poster of the film; now I have a full role in “John Day”. It has always been a learning experience working with Naseer saheb and at times I had to bear with his chidings too.
You have done normally do serious and dark roles in most of your films. Is that due to all about your interest or you are offered only such roles?
It is only an aspect of the film. No one is perfect in this world. Every good person has some flaws and every bad person has some good points, so no character is dark or white.
This is Ahishor Solomon’s first film as a director. Did you accept the offer quickly or did you take a while to make up your mind?
I did not take any time before accepting this offer because Naseer saheb had already said “yes” for the movie. If Naseer saheb had not okayed the script then maybe I would have taken some time in reading it.
