Bollywood megastar Ranveer Singh is stoked about the Friday release of Rohit Shetty’s comedy “Cirkus.”
The film was shot under strict COVID-19 protocols and is one of the major post-pandemic Bollywood releases. “It’s made with joy, and its objective is to spread joy. So, the Christmas release is coming at just the right time, when families get together and go out and do joint activities – movie-going being one of them. It’s the perfect fit, coming at the perfect time and I get to explore yet another facet of my repertoire,” Singh told Variety.
In the 12 years since he made his debut as a happy-go-lucky wedding planner in “Band Baaja Baaraat” (2010), Singh has essayed a variety of roles ranging from a conflicted army general in historical drama “Bajirao Mastani” (2015) to playing the antagonist in epic “Padmaavat” (2018), a rapper from the slums of Mumbai in “Gully Boy” (2019) and World Cup-winning Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev in “83” (2021).
The actor has explored comedy before, as a comic policeman in Shetty’s cop universe films “Simmba” (2018) and “Sooryavanshi” (2021) and as a crusading villager in “Jayeshbhai Jordaar” (2022), but “Cirkus” is the first time he is venturing into slapstick territory. “It is like a mishmash of all kinds of humor – insult humor, slapstick humor, situational humor. So, it was fun and fulfilling to be a part of this comedy, it allowed me to do something I was really looking forward to exploring since a really long time,” Singh said.
“Cirkus,” set in the 1960s, is loosely based on William Shakespeare’s play “The Comedy of Errors,” which has been adapted several times for Indian screens, notably in 1963 by Manu Sen as Bengali-language film “Bhranti Bilas,” in 1968 by Debu Sen as Hindi-language film “Do Dooni Chaar” and in 1982 by Gulzar as Hindi-language film “Angoor.”
Singh has not watched any of these. “I try and not be colored by anybody else’s interpretation and try to put something out that’s original, that’s born out of a direct connection between me and this specific text,” Singh said.
One of the “Cirkus” highlights for Singh is sharing screen space with one of his comic heroes – revered Indian comedian Johny Lever, who he ranks alongside Peter Sellers, Robin Williams, Charlie Chaplin, Jim Carrey and Indian comic icon Govinda. ” I was very overwhelmed that I was in a movie with him and that too an out-and-out comedy,” Singh said.
“Cirkus,” an ensemble comedy, features Singh and Varun Sharma in dual roles and also stars Pooja Hegde, Jacqueline Fernandez, Siddhartha Jadhav, Sanjay Mishra, Tiku Talsania, Vrajesh Hirjee and Ashwini Kalsekar, with cameos by Deepika Padukone and Ajay Devgn.
The film will form part of another Shetty film universe. “It is a part of what is now dubbed the ‘comedy verse.’ It started with ‘All the Best,’ then ‘Golmaal’ 1, 2, 3, 4 and now ‘Cirkus,’ which hopefully, will connect with people, and then become a franchise of its own, bringing the characters from his other comedy films into this,” Singh said.
After an indifferent 2022, the Bollywood box office saw a late revival with “Drishyam 2” in November. Industry pundits are hoping that “Cirkus” will see the year end with with a bang.
“Cirkus” is produced by Rohit Shetty Productionz, T-Series Films and Reliance Entertainment.