Ashutosh Rana On Returning To Theatre As Raavan In ‘Humare Ram’, Inclination Towards Negative Roles And More

During an exclusive chat with Outlook India, Rana mentioned what made him take up the role of Ravana in the magnum opus play ‘Humare Ram’. He said, “Ravana was a character that I was enamoured by in my childhood. I belong to Gadarwarwa, a small town in Madhya Pradesh and there we had a great Ram Leela. As children we took part in the Ram Leela festivities. Since we were children, we were not cast in Ravana’s role. Now finally, we have prepared ‘HUMARE RAM’ and it is a moment of great pride. Secondly, I have written ‘Ram Rajya’, an award winning novel and through this, all the characters of the ‘Ramayana’, including the character of Lord Shri Ram, the character of Sita, Ravana, were explored along with their emotional psychology.”

Despite having authored 'Ramrajya’ and beautifully depicted the story of Lord Ram in the book, he chose to enact the role of Raavan in the play. Stating how he explored the dichotomy of the characters, Rana mentioned, “If a person comes into contact with Maryada Purushottam Ram, his character and thoughts will undoubtedly grow. So, my own belief is that if we look at it, Ravana himself was a devotee of Shiva, a visionary of the times, a great scholar and the conqueror of all the three worlds. What happened in his life that caused him to die, despite possessing all of these qualities? I realised that his ego destroyed him, even though he was the world’s greatest conqueror. We attempt to show this in ‘HUMARE RAM’ that something small like ego can damage all of us.”

He added, “Through the Ramayana, we try to instil ethics and principles in our own lives. You will notice that Ravana is the most powerful, more knowledgeable but Ram defeated him with an army of monkeys and bears. This story is all about value versus volume.”

Rana has certainly played dark characters before, in ‘Sangharsh’ and ‘Dushman’, and many more. When asked if he is inclined towards characters like that, he answered, “No, it’s not like that but when I began my career, I chose negative characters since negative characters give you lots of possibilities to explore as an actor. Since there is no set format, playing negative character roles is a massive exploratory journey for an actor. So that’s how I started and I was fortunate enough to play characters like Gokul Pandit in ‘Dushman’ and Lajja Shankar Panday in ‘Sangharsh’, in my initial years. It was a brilliant start and a very satisfactory journey. You will also notice that I have not repeated any of the negative roles that I have played. If you call the shade negative in a colour palette, then you will find that the two roles that I enacted in ‘Dushman’ are not the same in ‘Sangharsh’. In fact, they are all different characters such as the roles in ‘Baadal’, ‘Sonchiriya’ and ‘Mulk’. I wanted a variety of roles and managed to achieve it through my career.”

Last but not the least, the actor asserted that the way the director presents his perspective is what makes ‘Humare Ram’ different from others. “It’s really encouraging since we have got a repeat audience for our shows,” he signed off. 

On the work front, Rana was last seen in psychological thriller 'Murder in Mahim', and now has Rohit Shetty’s ‘Singham Again’ in his pipeline.