Meezaan recalls playing Ranveer Singh’s body double in Padmaavat, learning entire speech: ‘Band baji hui thi’

Actor Meezaan, who recently starred in Hungama 2, technically made his ‘screen debut’ as a body double for Ranveer Singh in director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat. Meezaan, the son of actor Jaaved Jafferi, had assisted Bhansali before being launched by him in the film Malaal.

In a new interview, he recalled the experience of playing Ranveer Singh’s body double in the period epic, and one nerve-wracking incident when he had to memorise lines and Ranveer’s mannerisms for a scene.

He told RJ Siddharth Kannan in Hindi that he learned a lot by assisting Bhansali on Padmaavat, and by observing Ranveer, Deepika Padukone, and Shahid Kapoor on set. “Bhansali sir trusted me, and he would rehearse scenes with me. He would record the rehearsals and the blockings, and he’d give me feedback on my performance.”

Recalling one tense experience when he was called in to fill in for an unavailable Ranveer, Meezaan said, “I was there on set, in costume and makeup. I hadn’t eaten anything, so I was really stressed. I was a little late, and it took an hour for the prosthetics and for me to get into the look. I learned the script in that one hour. The moment I came out, I was already nervous about doing proper acting in front of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, it was technically my ‘silver screen debut’, and there were 500 junior artistes around me, and I had to deliver a whole speech. Then an assistant director comes to me and shows me Ranveer’s version of the shot, and asks me to replicate his mannerisms. I was like, ‘why couldn’t you have told me before! I was already so tense’. But regardless, I went ahead, I was terrified, I was in bad shape.”

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He said that he performed the scene, and that Bhansali would come and direct him on occasion, before realising that he didn’t have to, as his face wouldn’t be seen. Meezaan said that he will never forget this experience.