Randeep Hooda plays Love Game

From the intense brooding cop in Risk to the cool philanderer in Love Game. Randeep Hooda speaks to Indu Mirani of DNA about the transition.

Have you gotten over Risk ?
Yes, long ago, I was over it in two days. The day I saw it I got over it, and its not that it didn't do well. I met the distributor for Mumbai who says he made double the amount in his territory. I think it worked better in smaller towns.

Love Game sounds like an erotic thriller.
(Laughs) Love Game is not an erotic thrillerl. It is actually a slice of life comedy, but the take is on the man-woman relationship that we have today. It's not a slapstick comedy but a romantic comedy. It is basically the story of a young man, what he thinks love is, what he wants in a woman and what he actually needs. It's about Navras. Every normal man has nine fantasies but we couldn't fit that into the length of the script, so there are eight. We left out the whore. The ras that is not there is the paid sex one.

Eight women and one man, very flattering isn't it?
It is a tough job to have eight different relationships with women in one film. Even though the role is close to a today's normal generation migrant urban youth that I actually am. This is the closest to me that I have ever played. I usually play all these characters that are totally imaginative, yet based in reality so I have to mould myself a lot. Now I have to mould myself back which is also a challenge. This is something I really wanted to do, because I wanted to let myself go, put a bit more of myself into a role so that I can keep putting bit more of myself into other roles which are unlike me. That's why I have taken up this film.

Is it more fun to be doing a film with lovely young girls than to be leering at people and shooting at them?
This is definitely more fun, because it’s more relaxed. I’ve heard all these stories about actors romancing their actresses. I’ve never ever been able to do that.

Was it difficult to change yourself from the earlier films to this mood?
When the camera started rolling in the beginning, it was a bit hard because for the past two and a half years, doing these tough guy roles, you automatically harden up but it's gotten better and there's a boyish side to me also which nobody has seen coming out in this film.