Tuesday, Feb 11, 2014
It’s almost impossible to contain Bollywood’s boisterous stars Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, the protagonists in Gunday premiering in Dubai on February 12. At every turn, you are tempted to strap them down like you would two toddlers on a sugar high.
During a recent interview over the phone from Mumbai, the two burst into a song from their latest film. Tune Maari Entryaan. Dil Mein Bhaji Ghanti Yaar (roughly translated as, you entered my life and there was a gong in our heart), they sang, and improvised a line to insert this journalist’s name. It was more disconcerting, albeit amusing, than a regular hello. But their perfectly synchronised antics make you smile and you wonder how the film’s director Ali Abbas Zafar hammered out a film with these ants-in-their-pants men.
“The film is about two gundays [outlaws] who are like that in real-life. They are both emotional and mad. Controlling those two men, who are kids at heart, was my biggest challenge,” said Zafar.
Set in 1970s Kolkota in east India, Gunday chronicles the lives of two men Bikram (Singh) and Bala (Kapoor), who start off as two displaced children of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Their ascent to power from being petty coal thieves to powerful mobsters is brought to life in this Yash Raj Films production.
“We are refugees and unfortunately we don’t get help by the system and [our] hands are forced to take on jobs that no kid should. They have no money, no food and no shelter… they would have turned out to be better people if they had gotten some help or somebody had taken a leap of faith in them,” said Kapoor. While he plays the wild, boisterous Bala, Kapoor’s co-star Singh takes his turn as the subdued Bikram. In real life though, Singh is the nuttier one.
“Bikram and Bala are two sides of the same coin. We are two bodies one soul, Do Dil, Ek Jaan,” said Singh.
“Baba [their term of endearment for each other], doesn’t’ that just sound awesome. I just made that up,” Singh, said with an evil laugh.
Kapoor, the son of legendary producer Boney Kapoor, steps in: “Bala is a bit of a wild child and Bikram is his equilibrium who keeps a check on Bala and his temper. I am so volatile, Bala just completes me,” said Kapoor. Before he could complete his sentence, there was an ‘aawww’ sigh from Singh.
Their friendship is becoming the stuff of legend. The actors’ joint appearances have become a poster for brotherhood that knows no rival. While Priyanka Chopra, who plays a beguiling cabaret dancer, is the heroine of Gunday, these two guys and their antics have made more headlines.
But will this friendship expire soon after the film’s release?
“I can see where you are coming from but we knew each other long before Gunday. And even during [the filming] there was no case of one-upmanship because we believe that the camera will capture everything. We don’t want the audience to take away Bikram or Bala. We want them to know both Bikram and Bala,” said Kapoor.
While Singh finds the Ishaqzaade star intelligent, Kapoor digs the other’s unrestrained candour.
“There is genuine liking here, we swear,” said the two in unison.
According to the duo, the credit has to go to their director Zafar for not allowing any scope for insecurity.
“Remember the scene from Dil Chahta Hai when Aamir Khan planned an impromptu road trip to Goa with his friends. Well Ali did something similar, he just said: ‘I have a script, so boys hop along’. We didn’t know what our parts were but we were both blown away by the story. He narrated it with sound effects. I could hear and feel the explosions,” said Singh, imitating his director.
Gunday could be the modern-day Bollywood answer to two-hero iconic films such as Deewar, Kaala Patthar (Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor) from the ’70s and 1995’s Karan Arjun, featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. These movies were united in their themes of friendship, male bonding and larger-than-life heroes. Led by breathless cinematography and explosive narratives, such movies were a testament to how a movie is told rather than what it tells.
“We grew up on those films which celebrated heroism and heroic men. It’s celebratory in the sense that we had to make the rough look cool,” said Kapoor, who added that his biggest challenge was to look the part. “I have always been an overweight kid. So to share the frame with somebody like Ranveer, that was a bit formidable. We are from the streets [in the film] so we couldn’t look different. But the biggest validation was when after seeing the teaser, everybody was like: ‘you look like two bodies, one person’,” said Kapoor.
The scene in which these two men, torsos bronzed to perfection, race against a train stands as proof of their chemistry.
“We boys have both chemistry and biology,” said Singh, laughing at his own joke.
But don’t be fooled by their buffoonery. When it comes to getting their hands dirty, they both roughed it out.
“It was 120 days of sheer hard work. We shot the film in a coal mine and it was scalding hot. The scene on top of the train was shot when it was 52 degrees [Celsius] outside,” said Singh.
While they did it sportingly, Zafar — who directed Meri Brother Ki Dulhan — gave them the ultimate stamp of approval.
“At heart, both are lovely guys. But they have got a lot of s**** from me. The only way to control them was to make them understand that what they were doing wasn’t right and to make them understand that in a film they would both be judged… they were like wet clay which could be moulded easily,” said Zafar.
Interestingly, these two stars have an unusual Valentine’s Day planned.
“My Valentine’s Day will be spent going to cinemas screening Gunday. I will go to each and every cinema and watch my fans watch the film. I want to see if they clap, whistle... I want to see it all. So all you beautiful people out there, spend your Valentine’s Day with me,” said Singh.
Don’t Miss It
Gunday releases in the UAE on February 13. Before that the film’s stars, Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra, will be in Dubai on Wednesday, February 12, for its world premiere. While it’s an invite-only event, the stars will walk the red carpet at Meydan Imax in Dubai at 9pm. You can also catch them at the Arabian Centre mall in Dubai at 7pm.
By Manjusha Radhakrishnan Senior Reporter
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
