Playing Bajirao was a huge gamble: Ranveer Singh

Indian actor Ranveer Singh is just five-year-old in the film industry and yet, he took a leap of faith by playing a historical character on screen, but the actor says he always knew his decision to work on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani would pay off.

In the film, Ranveer, 30, plays Maratha warrior Peshwa Bajirao. “At a critical stage of my career, giving more than one year to a project, not doing anything else, shaving my head...The time this project took, in that much time you can do three films. It’s a big gamble... It’s a risk but somewhere I knew the pay off would be worth it,” said Ranveer.

“When I decided to do it, a lot of well-wishers, advisers asked me if I was sure about doing the film. And now that the trailer is out they see it, they understand why I did it,” he said.

The Gunday actor said he always wanted to play a warrior and a gangster on screen. And now that he is playing Peshwa Bajirao, he is living his dream. “I always wanted to do a character of a ‘yodha’. I also want to play a gangster. But in my eighth film I got chance to play a maha-yodha, it is a moment of joy,” he said. “My name is Ranveer and it means yodha, warrior. I think I was born to play this part. I like the genre of historical drama so I was waiting to do a film like this. I was excited about it,” he added.

For the actor, every day was a challenge while being on the sets of Bajirao Mastani. The film, also starring Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, opens in theatres on December 18.