Randeep Hooda on his low phase: ‘I was depressed, had to sell everything’

Randeep Hooda, who makes his directorial debut with his first home production Swatantra Veer Savarkar, recently opened up about a low phase in his career. In an interaction with Humans of Bombay, the actor spoke about the financial challenges that came up when he had no work. (Also read: Randeep Hooda says Alia Bhatt was ‘terrified’ of him while shooting for Highway: ‘I made sure of that’)
In his recent interview, while speaking about his low phase, Randeep said, “11 years out of these three 23 or so odd years I have not been on the set even once a year. Many times I had zero money and I didn’t know what I am going to do next. I sold everything in my house, car, microwave and everything but I neve sold my horses. There is an Arabic saying ‘Apni tankha badhao, karcha kam karne se kuch nahi hoga (Increase your income instead of reducing your expenses)’. Once, I sold my horse Ranji for a dear some of money and I just couldn’t take it. I returned the cheque and got my horse back. Mental stamina comes from the fact that what else is there. Going through movies like The Battle of Saragarhi where I had grown a full Sikh beard for three years, prepped for Gatka and that movie didn’t get completed.”
He added, “That was a very low time for me and I was very depressed. It was like life chopped in half because I had to leave that. I almost left Extraction for it. But then I went to Gurudwara and said sorry. Because I had taken a pledge on the Guru Granth Sahib at Amritsar’s Golden Temple that ‘Sikhs have given so many sacrifices, I will not cut my Kesh till this movie comes to its conclusion.’ Then I moved on. After that it was a struggle because for three years I had no work, I had put on weight. So then I said ok ‘one-step at a time.’ My parents were worried. When I did Extraction, I was not fully there. Then you pick yourself again and my parents made me promise not to do it again. Then I did it again in Veer Savarkar’s biopic.”
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Randeep made his screen debut with Mira Nair’s NRI comedy-drama Monsoon Wedding. His first Hindi movie was Ram Gopal Varma’s D directed by Vishram Sawant.
Swatantra Veer Savarkar releases on March 22. Directed and co-written by Randeep Hooda with Utkarsh Naithani, the epic-drama is produced by Anand Pandit Motion Pictures and Randeep Hooda Films with Legend Studios and Avak Films.
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