Ashutosh Rana: More than age, edge is important. Today I have a good balance of josh and hosh

“The kind of life one lives should be full of substance, I believe,” says actor Ashutosh Rana sharing his philosophy about life.

He explains, “Life will be saarthak only if you are comfortable with yourself and your surroundings, society and family. Main utsavi mansikta ka vyakati hoon. Every moment is a festival for me. I have practiced living and enjoying every moment of my life aur ab aadat ho gayi hai.”

The Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) actor who turned 54 on Nov 10, would either shoot every birthday or visit his spiritual guru, but this year had a quiet celebration with family. “My latest book, Ram Rajya, got a good response, so I plan to start writing my next book soon. It will be about Lord Vasudev Krishna and how one can find connect and relevance of his stories in today’s world,” he says.

This year, with two OTT movie releases- Pagglait and Hungama 2 and a web show, Chhatrasal, Rana is excited to see the change in the way we tell stories but also that the audiences are ready and accepting different stories. Being a senior actor, he remarks, “more than age, edge is important as an actor”. “As you grow up, you become mature and with that the sur your delivery and performance changes. Earlier, I might have a lot of josh but today, I have a good balance of josh and hosh. I feel blessed that the movies I started my career with were considered off beat back then but today are ‘in-beat’,” he quips.

He adds, “Despite having worked for 30 years or more, there are a number of popular actors, who haven’t played a character that is memorable for the audiences. I am grateful that I got the chance to do films like Dushman (1998), Sangharsh (1999), Shabnam Mausi (2005), and people still remember them even almost 20 years after release.”

Having played some exceptional roles as a villain in movies, he rues the fact that of late, villains have disappeared from cinema. “That has been the case since the last 15 odd years. Having a khalnayak in a story propels it forward with an additional flavour as opposed to an actor playing a negative role. Playing a villain and a negative role is totally different, I feel. But I am also glad now there are character actors in films. So, everyone is an ‘actor’ now without a tag.”