Ranveer Singh reveals how he ‘gave up’ on acting, recalls only three actors ‘made it into glitzy industry from outside’

Actor Ranveer Singh has spoken about the time when he gave up on acting as he saw ‘all the new upstarts were somebody with great legacy’. In a new interview, Ranveer recalled that at that point Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Akshay Kumar were the only actors in the ‘glitzy industry from the outside’. He also said that he decided to not pursue acting as it felt ‘far-fetched’. (Also Read | Reddit isn’t impressed with Ranveer Singh’s Cirkus trailer, his OTT expressions)

The actor said that after four years of giving up on becoming an actor, he started writing. He recalled thinking that though taking up a career in acting looked ‘far-fetched’, at least he should give his best shot. Ranveer said he thought he could ‘accept it not happening’, but couldn’t accept ‘not giving it my best shot’.

In an interview with Esquire, Ranveer said, “Around the turn of the century—when I was in 10th grade, I wanted to act. But I kind of gave up on it, thinking it was too far-fetched. Because the examples of people having made it into this glitzy industry from the outside were too few-and-far-in-between. There was just Mr Shah Rukh Khan, Mr Amitabh Bachchan and Mr Akshay Kumar. That’s it. At the time (around the year 2000), I looked around me and all the new upstarts were somebody with some kind of great legacy; whose fathers were great superstars or big-time producers or directors. So, I gave it up.”

Ranveer also talked about his vision board. He added, “So, in my struggling years, my personal space had a vision board. It’s the most surreal story, because my sister had photoshopped my face on to two posters of Yash Raj Films and (laughs as he recounts), oh my God, she had even photoshopped my face on to a person holding a Filmfare award [India’s equivalent to the Oscars]! This is years before I even got the call to work with Yash Raj. So, I did manifest it. I hustled hard and created my own luck.”

Fans will see Ranveer in Cirkus, helmed by Rohit Shetty. It also stars Johnny Lever, Varun Sharma, Jacqueline Fernandez, Pooja Hegde, Sanjay Mishra, Ashwini Kalsekar, Mukesh Tiwari, and Siddharth Jadhav among several others. The film is scheduled to release on December 23. He also has Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani along with Alia Bhatt, Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, and Shabana Azmi.