Getting into the skin of his characters comes easy to Randeep Hooda, but convincing his parents to let him do that not so much. They had had enough with his latest Swatantrya Veer Savarkar.
“My parents made me promise that I won't do this again… that they wouldn't stay with me in Mumbai if I did it again,” said Hooda. Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, he said, has been the most challenging for him so far―“one that was emotionally, mentally and physically draining to the point that I had to keep popping pills in order to keep exhaustion and anxiety in check”.
With this film, he was more than an actor―he was also the co-writer, a first-time director and co-producer. And, there was mounting pressure to finish the film that seemed to be taking forever―one-and-a-half years to complete a 55-day shooting schedule. His health took a beating, and his morale a dip. Hooda shed more than 30kg to portray Savarkar’s Cellular Jail stint in the Andamans.
The problem was Hooda had to keep switching between this state of “deprivation” (relying only on almond oil and dry fruits) and “revenge eating”, leading to a “near death experience”. “I will never do this again,” said Hooda. And then, after a pause, he added, cheekily, “But then again, never say never.”
To see Hooda in the film is akin to seeing Savarkar in flesh and blood. So poignant and moving is the actor's portrayal of the revolutionary, especially as a political prisoner, that one cannot unsee it long after it is over. The prolonged torture, both physical and psychological, that he endures through the solitary confinement stands out. In that “God-forsaken, hell-on-earth kind of place”, a weak and worn-out Savarkar, with rotten teeth and a skeletal body, occupies a dark and dingy room, ridden with vomit and human faeces, with no water to wash and after a point with no space to rest or sleep. Hooda's portrayal of this grimness shocks and stirs, and makes one wonder at the metamorphosis an actor undergoes to breathe life into his character.
It is the latest reaffirmation of Hooda's naturalistic approach as a performer, one rooted in the realm of method acting. Especially in the genre of biopics, which is on every actor’s wish-list as it provides them with ample space to explore their craft and display their prowess. Ever so often, Hooda uses this medium to the hilt, beginning with Main Aur Charles (2015). He nailed the chameleonic flamboyance, swag, mystique, even the grin of Charles Sobhraj, one of the most notorious con artists. Even as the film failed at the box office, it earned Hooda critical acclaim.
He then doubled it up with Sarbjit (2016), wherein he evoked in the audience a heartfelt sympathy for a farmer wrongfully convicted of spying. Now, post Savarkar, Hooda said he is being offered more biopics, as Bollywood is wont to do―it uses actors as formulas until the actor reaches a saturation point. But not Hooda. This tall, well-built Jat with a rustic look―wide jawline and narrowly set eyes that conceal more than they convey―knows how to keep his offerings varied.
Hooda came into the spotlight as a sexy gangster who makes love with his sahib’s wife in Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster (2011). “It remains one of my favourites to this day,” said Hooda. But he came on screen a decade before that. He was in Monsoon Wedding (2001). In time, Hooda gave us profound characters in varied avatars, from the baddie who has a change of heart in Highway (2014) to the rogue-turned-saviour Saju in the global thriller Extraction (2020), where Hooda worked with Chris Hemsworth and delivered a fascinating, samurai-like character in the garb of a former Para Special Forces lieutenant colonel. The latter was his attempt to make a dent in the “real action genre”, and do it in a way that only he could. “Going through my filmography, I feel I have been around for a while and I put in enough good cinema and performances.”
Yet, his work has somehow long gone under-recognised―blame it on sloppy writing or below par direction. Ask him if he could name an underrated actor in Bollywood, and pat comes the reply, “Me. I am sure (my work) has got its due or will get its due… whatever is due in the eyes of the people,” he said.
Hooda is the kind of actor who regales us with his talent each time he comes on screen, the problem is that it is very rare. We keep seeing him more on the racecourse (thanks to his love of equestrian sports) than on film sets. So, why don't we see enough of him? “Because I spend two to three years method acting in movies,” he said, laughing. “It is just the kind of way of working that I got into, but now I am going to change that.”
Over the years, Hooda has worked with multiple directors and studios, including Yashraj and Dharma. He has also done indie films, and has worked with more than 25 first-time directors. “It will be great to have a big studio-backed movie that I can bite into,” he said. “I am looking for more genre-breaking stories as of now. I am a very funny guy in real life. I have got a really deadly Jat sense of humour. Most of the work that I did in theatre was comedy. So yes, I could explore that.”
Hooda comes from a Punjabi Haryanvi family that has no connection to Bollywood. His father was a surgeon and mother a social worker. His sister specialises in metabolic medicine and helps him with his weight loss/gain regimens, and his brother is a software engineer in Singapore. When it came to pursuing a career, Hooda had two choices―equestrian sports, in which he had earned medals for the nation, or acting, which he was equally good at, having performed on stage in school and college. He chose the latter. “But a few films down the line, I bought my own horses and revived my love for [the sport],” he said. “Very recently, my horse gave birth, and I also have a three-year-old who has been put in on the saddle. So I am really looking forward to competing on horses that I have bred and I will have my own brand on it.”
For now, Hooda is looking forward to holidaying with wife Lin Laishram in the jungle, where he can also pursue his love for wildlife photography and nurse his injured knees.
Only Hooda would go to the wild to recuperate!