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Dream role

Ashutosh Rana believes the portrayal of each villain is different



Acting couple Ashutosh Rana and Renuka Shahane

Just hearing the name Ashutosh Rana conjures up all those frightening images from Sangarsh and Dushman. Images of the cold-blooded psychopath from Dushman and the religious fanatic who sacrific es children in Sangarsh immediately come to the mind. But mind you, the man himself is a lot different. A believer in God and destiny, Ashutosh comes across as a very spiritual person with a traditionalist outlook. In fact, his spiritual guru Pandit Dev Prabhakar Shastri, he says, is both his biggest strength and his biggest weakness.

Ashutosh plays a politician in a Telugu movie. The film deals with the land mafia nexus in property business. Another Telugu movie of his, Balakrishna starrer Okka Magadu was released this Friday, where he plays Chief Minister Namboodri - a self-centred politician.

Back in Bollywood, his next movie Coffee House portrays him in a very different role, much unlike the terrifying villain we’ve come to expect of him. He plays the lead role of an idealist newspaper owner, whose love for integrity costs him his everything and eventually his life itself.

The actor, who’s now acted in four Telugu movies, says he loves Hyderabad for its “fantastic combination of modernity and tradition.” The actor enjoys acting in regional languages and believes that “language is no bar for an artist. Cinema is a medium of expression and language just a way of expressing.”

Does it annoy him being portrayed as villain every time? Not at all, says Ashutosh. “Every villain is different. Bura aadhmi hotha hai alag alag type ka. If I’m repetitive, people will not be interested in my roles.”

This graduate from National School of Drama is very selective when it comes to choosing his roles and signs no script without reading the script.

“I am not interested in just my character when a director approaches me for a role. First I listen to the entire story, only then my character.” And only if the role has anything “meaty” will he sign for the movie.

TOMIN PAUL

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