Ranbir Kapoor speaks on working with his idol Sanjay Dutt, Dutt reciprocates

Ranbir Kapoor played Sanjay Dutt in Raj Kumar Hirani’s Sanju. He now gets to share screen space with his idol in Shamshera. Ranbir, who is coming to the big screen four years after he delivered the blockbuster Sanju, is relishing the casting coup in the film that pits him against Sanjay Dutt! Sanjay, who has delivered some of the most epic villains on screen, is thrilled to give us a more evil, merciless, cold-hearted brute force of nature, Shuddh Singh in Shamshera.

Ranbir says, “It’s amazing that Sanjay Dutt is my antagonist! When I was 10 or 11, I had Sanjay Dutt’s poster in my cupboard. Then eventually getting to play him in a biopic directed by Rajkumar Hirani was a dream come true. And finally getting an opportunity to work with him, to act with him, where I am the protagonist and he is the antagonist, it’s incredible! Sanjay Dutt has given us some epic villains with his brilliant acting performances and people are going to love him as Shuddh Singh in Shamshera!”

Sanjay Dutt is collaborating with director Karan Malhotra again after Agneepath. Sanjay had given us a villain for the ages as Kancha in that film.

Ranbir says Sanjay’s presence in the film as an antagonist has made Shamshera an anticipated project amongst audiences. “I have so much love for him and so much respect for him. He is such an amazing actor. You know even though he has played the antagonist in so many films, he still makes it different, he still makes it believable. It goes back to the old notion that a hero will only be impactful if the villain has a looming presence and I don’t think there is any actor in the Indian film industry who has the presence that Sanjay Dutt has on screen.”

Sanjay Dutt says, “I love playing the villain and Karan Malhotra loves to give me characters like these. I guess people love to see me as a villain on screen and I’m happy that all the films in which I have played a villain have been loved. I wish the same for Shamshera because Karan, Ranbir and the entire team have worked really hard on the film.”