10 Years of Lootera: Sonakshi Sinha is proud of the actor Ranveer Singh has become today – Exclusive

It was released 10 years ago but one still looks back at Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera with fond remembrance. A poetic landscape painted by the talented filmmaker and some exceptional performances by Sonakshi Sinha and Ranveer Singh who were just starting to gain the spotlight in the acting world.  The film is adapted from O’ Henry’s The Last Leaf, a novel from 1907.  It narrates the tale of a conman feigning to be an archaeologist. Sonakshi’s portrayal of a Bengali Zamindar’s daughter whose innocence leads to her life turning upside down as she gets drawn to this man was one to bookmark.. On its 10th anniversary, Sonakshi Sinha talked exclusively with Filmfare about how proud she is of Ranveer Singh for the star that he’s become and how special their bond is for having made such a special film at the start of their careers. Excerpts…

The energy was like, I can’t express it in words. It was amazing. There was this team so focused on putting something beautiful together and that’s exactly what they did and everyone knew what they were doing. It was the first time I was working with Vikram and Ranveer and the entire team, I remember it being such a smooth and easy experience. There were so many things – we all come from different schools of cinema. I come from this commercial masala film and Vikram had just released Udaan. So it took us a little time to understand each other’s processes. Like he said you have to be in this zone and you know don’t lose the mood. Stay in that mood all that day. And I used to be like why is he speaking like this? But when he realised that this girl is laughing and giggling one moment and just delivering such an emotional scene the very next moment, he just let me be. He understood the entire process that I don’t have any process. 

That’s when we came to this middle ground and worked so beautifully with each other. There was this one scene where I got really pissed with Ranveer because there is this one scene where he keeps entering the room and shouting at me – police ko tumne maara and he was really aggressive and he kept spitting on me, So the first couple of times I said ok fine, can be a mistake. But then on the fourth day – I was like oh my god can’t, he keeps spitting on me and I just walked off the set. He came running behind me and so did Vikram. So yeah that was really funny and we all had a good laugh. There is another funny incident which is also there in the making of the film, I am really in this very emotional moment, a very sad part where I am reminiscing and suddenly one of the ADs instead of saying – Action, said Ice-cream! And then the entire team burst out shooting. We have had a lot of fun shooting for this film even though it is in a different zone. Behind the scenes were amazing.

My process is that I don’t have any process. When I reach the set, I understand what I need to know by talking to my directors. It is their vision, I really want to bring out 99 per cent of what they have in their mind and a little bit of myself to the character. I really sit with my director and really understand how he would like me to play the character. For me, it doesn’t really matter what genre or kind of film it is. It is all about my director’s vision. For me, Lootera was probably one of the easiest roles I had to play because Pakhi was so real, so vulnerable, and so innocent. For me to play that, to play it so realistically was just liberating and that is what I really did.

I think there is such fondness when Ranveer and I meet. We have not worked together after Lootera for some strange reason. But whenever we meet, there’s definitely conversation about Lootera, how much fun we had, what a beautiful film we made and there’s purely just fondness for each other. I am so happy with the actor he has become, the star that he has become. Very proud to say we shared one of our earliest films with each other and were able to create these two characters which people still talk about today.