Ranveer Singh: Sanjay Leela Bhansali is somebody who has shaped me as an artiste

Picture Courtesy: Mid-day Archives

On the 59th birthday of the Bollywood film-maker, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ranveer Singh credits him for shaping him as the artiste that he has become today. Ranveer has collaborated with the esteemed film-maker thrice - Ram Leela, Bajirao Mastani and Padmaavat and all these three projects went to become blockbusters!

Ranveer, who is credited to being a chameleon on screen, also thanks to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, says, "Mr. Bhansali is somebody who has shaped me as an artist more than any other creative collaborator in my entire life. I used to approach acting a certain way - I used to think ‘mujhe sab pata hai, I know everything' but Mr. Bhansali stripped down my constructs. He broke me down and he made me into ash, so that I could rise from the ashes be reborn as the artist that I've grown into today. I'm indebted to him lifelong for that."

The superstar adds, "He really expanded my bandwidth as an artist, my range and overhauled my understanding of the craft of acting. I'm grateful to him for everything that he has contributed towards shaping my craft. As a director he has these wild ideas about what to do in a scene, about the characters and about the choices."

About how Ranveer has always delivered his career-best landmark performances under Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the versatile actor says, "We work well together because I'm up to explore those wild ideas of his. We keep playing off each other and coming up with new ideas and different ways to do scenes, enact scenes differently, block it differently, stage it uniquely - he's basically just found somebody who's game for any wild idea that may strike him. He truly creates with freedom and that's what I love about him."