Hrithik Roshan has written off the prospect of following his contemporaries Salman and Aamir Khan into the ring to make a wrestling movie.
Bollywood's two highest grossing movies of 2016 were Dangal and Sultan – both sports dramas starring Aamir and Salman as professional wrestlers.
But Roshan has dismissively ruled out adding to the genre.
“A wrestling film? I don’t see myself in one,” he said, in an exclusive interview. “I don’t see myself wearing those short pants and fighting in the mud.”
Roshan was speaking in Dubai on January 7, during promotional duties for upcoming revenge thriller Kaabil, which have brought the 42-year-old star to the emirate for the second time in less than a week.
“I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been here,” he said.
“I love Dubai, it’s one of my favourite places – I was here for New Year’s and had a great, great time. “It’s got little bits and pieces of all the worlds that exist in the world. The variety you have here is just unmatchable.”
A recent visit also gave Roshan the chance to introduce his sons Hrehaan, 10, and Hridaan, 8, to the new Bollywood Parks Dubai.
The actor collaborated with the theme park to bring to life his iconic, eponymous role in sci-fi blockbuster Krrish with a 4D flying theatre ride Krrish: Hero's Flight.
“I visited the Bollywood Parks and I must talk about that – I had low expectations because it’s us, it’s the first time someone is doing something with Bollywood and creating rides,” he said.
“But I was shocked, in disbelief. The Krrish ride especially blew my mind – it’s on a par, if not better, than any of the Transformers rides or Spider-Man rides – they have outdone themselves. I’m just so proud.
“I was with my kids, and my kids are big critics of mine – the highest they’ve scored me is 7.5 out of 10 for any film of mine – they gave the ride 10 out of 10.”
Earlier, Roshan hosted a brief press conference alongside Kaabil co-star, 28-year-old Yami Gautam.
She was full of praise for her elder colleague.
“The star – the huge star – doesn’t carry baggage at all, on set or otherwise,” she said.
“He’s not just one of the most fantastic actors you can get to work with – he’s an amazing human being.”
For his part, Roshan admitted it was the first and only time his famous nimble limbs had been stood up on the dance floor.
“It was the first time in my life shooting a dance scene that I’ve had to copy [anybody’s] dance style,” he said.
“I saw her do a step with a flavour better than I was doing it, and made her stop and do it ten times so I could copy it.”
Roshan might be renowned for dramatically changing his physique with each role, but he revealed his guilty pleasure of choice is Italian, rather than Indian, cuisine.
“At least twice or four times a week, if I get into a mood of having a pizza, I won’t have one pizza – I’ll have four large pizzas,” he said.
“And believe me, I can finish them all off.”
Kaabil is out in the UAE on January 25.
Check out Arts and Life soon for the full interview with Roshan and Gautam.
rgarratt@thenational.ae