Ranaksh Rana on 'The Mentor': 'It has elements of Mahabharata & sports'

Mumbai, Oct 27

Actor Ranaksh Rana, who is a part of the multilingual contemporary mytho-sports drama 'The Mentor', has opened up about his character, and shared that the movie has elements of epic saga 'Mahabharata' in it.

Directed by Vinil Vasu, the film is an action drama set against the backdrop of Kabaddi.

Throwing more light on his role, Ranaksh said: "My character's name is Happy Singh. He is essentially playing the role of Bheem from Mahabharata in this contemporary mytho-sports drama. He is a man with a golden heart and great strength - always stands up for his friends and is always willing to do his bit for the society."

"To get a chance to recreate the same magic in contemporary times is a huge opportunity for an actor. Happy is a versatile character, who is a Sardar from Punjab in Kerala. So the name and the layers of my character prompted me to take up this one," Ranaksh said.

The actor shared: "It is a pan-India film and that's the beauty of this film. It has elements of Mahabharata and sports in it. Since I am playing the role of a Sardar, there will be a lot of Punjabi dialogues irrespective of which language you are watching the film in. I will mostly dub in all languages."

If he is interested in 'Kabaddi', Ranaksh said: "I have been an active person since childhood and have played a lot of Kabaddi growing up. But I am not a professional Kabaddi player. What you will see on screen is the result of extensive training to understand and appreciate the sport. I got to play the role of a kabaddi player through this film, which is a great achievement and most importantly I learned a lot."

On the preparation work he did for this role, the actor shared: "Much before the shoot started, I started living the life of a Sardar. It was to connect with the character at a deeper level - wearing a turban and kara (metal bracelet), going to Gurudwara to get into the psyche of Happy Singh."

"I created a detailed character background to understand him better. I have already been listening to Punjabi songs and therefore I knew a little bit of Punjabi but I watched more Punjabi films to learn the language. I also went through Kabaddi training, which was a must to understand the nuances of the game," Ranaksh added.