Ranveer Singh: from Bollywood outsider to Deepika Padukone’s husband – via Band Baaja Baaraat, Padmaavat, and playing Kapil Dev in new cricket drama 83
As he celebrates his 35th birthday we look back at the rise of an unlikely star – once dismissed by producer and director Karan Johar for looking too ‘average’ – set to return in hotly anticipated Cricket World Cup biopic 83
As the Indian actor turns 35 on July 6, we look back at the rise of Bollywood’s ultimate outsider Ranveer Singh, who went from wannabe to superstar in a decade.
An outsider in Bollywood
For an outsider to break into Bollywood is no easy feat as millions try when only a dozen succeed, which makes Ranveer Singh’s unprecedented success remarkable on many levels. Setting foot in Film City, Mumbai, the directors and filmmakers were unsure if the energetic 24-year-old had “it”.
Casting director Shanoo Sharma at Yash Raj Studios, one of the largest filmmaking enterprises in Mumbai, saw something in Singh after countless auditions and proposed him to play the lead for the Hindi film Band Baaja Baaraat (released internationally as Wedding Planners) in 2010. After several screen tests, another film producer, Karan Johar, told the makers they had lost the plot in opting for a lead who looked so … average.
Kismet, or fate, and raw talent proved Johar wrong as the movie was a smash hit and the critics loved his natural screen presence. Years later, on Johar’s own talk-show Koffee with Karan, the producer apologised for not seeing what made the lead so special.
Singh picked up his best debut Filmfare Award that following year and has a hat-trick of best actor awards including a villainous turn in Padmaavat (2018) and a struggling Hindi rapper in Gully Boy (2019), which was India’s official entry into the Oscars last year (although it wasn’t shortlisted for best foreign language film).
Nosing through his roots
The Sindhi actor was born Ranveer Singh Bhavnani to Anju Bhavnani and Jagjit Singh. He abbreviated his triple name early on, stating to The Times of India, “It’s too long, too many syllables”. Singh says with a wink, “My Sindhi nose lets everyone know where I’m proudly from.”
Rumours have circulated that Singh’s father co-produced or financed his first film which catapulted the actor’s career, but Singh has denied it repeatedly for the past decade. Yash Raj Films, producers of his first movie, have also stated Singh’s family had nothing to do with him landing the role and they were unaware of the remote genetic link between him and any other celebrity in India. He lined up for auditions like every other struggling actor in the nation of 1.35 billion who try to make it big in Bollywood.