Popular chef Ranveer Brar has been making TV viewers' mouths water with his delicious dishes through his cooking shows, and now he has taken a new step in his career.
The former Masterchef India judge has dived into the acting world with the anthology Modern Love Mumbai, which features six stories that explore love in various forms.
"I didn’t plan for it (acting). I thought direction would be the next step as I am fascinated with direction. Before Modern Love, I was offered a few roles. They were primarily villain roles in south Indian movies. Tollywood thinks I'll make a good villain for some reason," he says with a laugh.
He doesn't see anything wrong with actors playing negative characters, but he thinks that one needs to "understand the medium before you can express yourself fully."
Modern Love Mumbai seemed to be a different and a better opportunity for him. "So I thought of taking it up," he says.
He was bowled over by his character and the story that the makers were trying to tell.
"Hansal Mehta sir is an acclaimed director and his love for food is known to everybody. When I was called for this role, I thought he would be the right person to understand me both as a chef and an individual, and to be able to direct me," says Brar.
"We had an inside joke that Hansal sir wanted all my recipes, so he gave me this role," quips the chef, who believes in sharing his recipes with people.
Though he entered the acting world, he didn’t leave behind his love for cooking.
"I am playing a chef in the series, so we cooked a lot of Nihari on the set. We must have cooked at least 50 kgs of mutton. We cooked Yakhni Pulao and Kimami Sewai as well," he shares.
His director told him to take as much time as he wanted. "He told me that he wanted to see love in my eyes, and the love for food is what he genuinely saw in my eyes. So he let me be with food a lot. It helped in making me feel comfortable," says Brar, known for food shows like Breakfast Xpress, Snack Attack, The Great Indian Rasoi and Health Bhi Taste Bhi.
Facing the camera wasn't a big deal for the chef, but delivering dialogues was "sort of the difficult part."
"I don't work with scripts for my shows. The camera rolls and I say whatever I want to say. But for this series, I was given a script. But then I realised that what was important was not what I had to say. It was what the other person was saying and how I was reacting to it," he says.
He found his co-star Pratik Gandhi a fantastic actor. "He is now a good friend. He made me feel comfortable on the set, so it didn’t feel like it was a lot of work. He was very encouraging. He would say that I was doing fine. The best acting tip he gave me was that I needed to be comfortable in my own skin and let the camera do its thing," he shares.
Brar plays a gay character in the new Amazon Prime Video series, but there are no stereotypes.
"The show is about love. I felt that you can replace the character. You can replace the male character with a female one or have two female characters. It is just the love in their eyes that matters," he says.
"Hansal sir made it very clear that I didn't have to behave in a certain way. He just wanted to see me in love. It's not an activist show. It's a show that expresses love"
He is still on cloud nine after starring in his first acting project, and he is looking forward to taking up more.
"I have not yet signed anything yet. Initially, when I was doing this, I wasn’t sure if I would act again," he says.
But while acting, he realised that his biggest fear was how much the character would take away from him.
"I realised that I was completely wrong. I realised that every time you play a character sincerely, it leaves something inside of you. It makes you richer. That's when I decided that probably I'll play more characters," says Brar, who likes the slice of life kind of storytelling.
As of now, he is looking forward to spending more time with himself.
"I know it sounds cliche and everybody has had enough of it in Covid, but I worked really hard during Covid. I made all these cooking videos, so I think I need a break," he says.
He wants to travel and meet people. "People are like fuel for me," he shares.
Modern Love Mumbai release on Prime Video on 13 May
Natalia Ningthoujam is a Manipur-based journalist. She knows how to smoothly switch from being a fan to a writer whenever needed. She tweets at @nattynick.
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