Actor Randeep Hooda, who recently directed and starred in the biopic ‘Swatantra Veer Savarkar’, talked about playing the most challenging role that he’d ever played. He revealed that he attempted to imitate the feeling of being confined to a jail cell in order to put himself in Sarabjit Singh’s shoes for the biopic ‘Sarbjit’. Sarabjit Singh was an Indian farmer who was declared to be guilty of spying after wandering into Pakistan, where he was imprisoned for several years before dying in captivity.
During a candid conversation with the BeerBiceps podcast, Randeep talked about his experience of playing the character of Sarabjit on screen and the relationship that he shared with his late sister, who was played in the film by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. He said that he had access to many of the letters that Sarabjit had sent to his sister while he was being held captive.
The actor said, “I had read some of his letters to his family, and I’d seen a lot of photos. I kind of knew what he’d gone through. In his letters, he’d ask about his family, his village. I didn’t know how to play someone who’d been locked up in prison for 22 years.”
Randeep further elaborated about his process of getting into Sarabjit’s character, “The first thing I did was I stopped flushing the toilet. I would switch off the bathroom lights, and I’d chain my hands and feet and lock myself around the shower area. I would spend time there. It was very difficult in the beginning. I would write letters to my director Omung Kumar, which I never actually sent to him.”
Randeep also talked about reducing a lot of muscle for the biopic of ‘Swatantra Veer Savarkar’. He said, “I would have only water, black coffee and green tea,” he said, adding, “Then I added chilla to my diet, some dark chocolate and nuts… I began to lose sleep, I fell down a couple of times on set.”
In 2016, Sarbjit was released to a mixed response and became a moderate hit at the box office. The Savarkar biopic, which was released on March 22, has failed to recoup its reported Rs 20 crore budget, a portion of which Randeep funded by selling off personal property.
During a candid conversation with the BeerBiceps podcast, Randeep talked about his experience of playing the character of Sarabjit on screen and the relationship that he shared with his late sister, who was played in the film by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. He said that he had access to many of the letters that Sarabjit had sent to his sister while he was being held captive.
The actor said, “I had read some of his letters to his family, and I’d seen a lot of photos. I kind of knew what he’d gone through. In his letters, he’d ask about his family, his village. I didn’t know how to play someone who’d been locked up in prison for 22 years.”
Randeep further elaborated about his process of getting into Sarabjit’s character, “The first thing I did was I stopped flushing the toilet. I would switch off the bathroom lights, and I’d chain my hands and feet and lock myself around the shower area. I would spend time there. It was very difficult in the beginning. I would write letters to my director Omung Kumar, which I never actually sent to him.”
Randeep also talked about reducing a lot of muscle for the biopic of ‘Swatantra Veer Savarkar’. He said, “I would have only water, black coffee and green tea,” he said, adding, “Then I added chilla to my diet, some dark chocolate and nuts… I began to lose sleep, I fell down a couple of times on set.”
In 2016, Sarbjit was released to a mixed response and became a moderate hit at the box office. The Savarkar biopic, which was released on March 22, has failed to recoup its reported Rs 20 crore budget, a portion of which Randeep funded by selling off personal property.
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