Ek Villain is about a bad guy with a heart

Sidharth Malhotra talks about his experiences portraying a negative character in Ek Villain, a thriller that aslo stars Shraddha Kapoor and Riteish Deshmukh.

Sidharth Malhotra and Shraddha Kapoor in Ek Villain. Courtesy Balaji Motion Pictures

Since his last directorial venture, 2013's Aashiqui 2, crossed the 100 crore rupee (Dh61 million) mark in under 100 days, all eyes are on the director Mohit Suri's latest project, Ek Villain.

The romantic thriller stars the Bollywood newbies Shraddha Kapoor and Sidharth Malhotra (of Aashiqui 2 and Student of the Year fame, respectively), alongside the seasoned actor Riteish Deshmukh. Both Malhotra and Deshmukh have been cast in roles that are a departure from their regular, clean-cut on-screen portrayals.

“This is the love story of a villain,” says Malhotra. “It shows you how a man with negative traits falls in love. The other bad guy is played by Riteish. There is no question as to who is the bigger and better villain because they are both genuinely negative characters. Mine might be slightly more aggressive, loud and physical, but they are both negative acts. Then there is a great love story, which is what Mohit Suri is known for, and that is where Shraddha comes in, like a ray of sunshine. There is also a message which Tushar [Hiranandani, the writer] and Mohit want the audience to take away. It’s even part of one of Shraddha’s dialogues in the film.”

At this point Kapoor chimes in and obliges: “‘Andhere ko andhera nahi, sirf roshni mita sakti hai. Nafrat ko nafrat nahi, sirf pyar mita sakta hai. Only light can conquer darkness. Only love can conquer hate.’ It’s the philosophy of the film. All the characters in this film embark on their own journey of self-realisation, and in their own way discover this truth.”

Malhotra, who is known for playing positive, upbeat characters, such as in this year's romcom Hassi Toh Phassi, admits that it was challenging to play a negative character for the first time.

“It was quite interesting for me,” says the actor. “This world was alien to me. I have never done such intense scenes. It was challenging because I had no frame of reference from anything I had done before. I had to come up with my own stuff. I had to experiment.”

Kapoor says that a lot of mental preparation was required for the highly emotional scenes, and that it was not easy for her to leave those emotions behind at the end of the day.

“It doesn’t matter what you get emotional about, you need to be in the right frame of mind, so there was a lot of mental preparation. To be honest, it rubs off on you at the end of the day. Some actors can switch on and off, but not me,” says Malhotra, “but it was also ­refreshing and therapeutic at times. But you cannot do these things in real life, so I will not ­endorse what you see in the film in real life. But as an actor it was ­exciting, because every day I discovered new ways of getting angry and emotional.”

When asked about his favourite Bollywood baddie, he admits that he finds it difficult to pick just one.

"Hindi films have a great culture of always having a villain and a hero. If I absolutely had to, then I would pick the heroes with a negative streak such as Shah Rukh Khan's character in Darr, or Sanjay Dutt's in Khalnayak.

“They played positive characters that they would mix up by adding a negative shade, and make them so convincing and so bad, but still retain that likeability factor.”

As the daughter of Shakti Kapoor, one of Bollywood’s most beloved villains, Kapoor, of course, picks her dad.

“Without being biased, though,” she adds quickly. “After all, he is, without a doubt, an iconic villain.”

• Ek Villain is out in cinemas across the UAE tomorrow