Ranveer Singh recently gave an interview to India Today where he spoke at length about the protests around Padmaavat, especially the death threats Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Leela Bhansali had to deal with during the making of the film. When asked about the emotions he felt during the threats and attacks, this is what he said –
I was filled with pain. There is no doubt about that and I had a very strong urge to act out, speak out but I was given strict instructions not to and I had to respect that, because I was not at the forefront of this fight. It is the prerogative of the producers, of the director. If they were explicitly telling me that me saying something or doing something is going to complicate things further. I don’t want to complicate the lives; I want to make the lives simpler and do my bit to see that the things go off smoothly and this film gets made and it gets released.
So, if this is what they are asking me to do, I have to abide by that. But yeah, of course I was enraged, absolutely enraged. But what could I do? I could choose to act out destructively, but I chose not to. I channeled it and I put all of it into my performance. And whatever you may feel after seeing this performance is born out of having felt a certain way.
He was then asked if he gave any advice to Deepika and Sanjay Leela Bhansali (as protesters were announcing cash prizes for their heads, and claiming that they’d cut off Deepika’s nose) –
We were there for each other and Mr Bhansali took his time to come out of what he went through understandably. But, hats off to the guy! When he came back, the kind of vigor he came back with on the film’s set, he was a like a man possessed. The way it happened and then there was a large gap where the film was not being shot. There was all this anxiety of what’s going to happen and that period was difficult for me as well. Because I don’t know what was happening. And I am feeling all of these things and I am being told to shut up. So, it was difficult, but we went on the set to complete the film.