Robbie Grewal on Arjun Rampal in Billionaire: ‘Not a fan of actors trying to match the look’

Vijay Mallya; (right) Arjun Rampal. Pics/AFP, Youtube, Instagram

Months after winning praise for Made in India: A Titan Story, director Robbie Grewal is turning to Billionaire, a web series he announced in March. If Made in India: A Titan Story was an exploration of an institution and a country coming into its own, Arjun Rampal-led Billionaire will take a perceptive look at a controversial man, through the rise and fall of a business tycoon. "It's a story that people know of, but don't know the intricate details. What's similar [between the two shows] is that it is still a human story," said Grewal.

Robbie Grewal and Hansal Mehta

In April, mid-day reported that Rampal's character is modelled on UB Group's disgraced former head honcho Vijay Mallya (First baddie, now King of good times, Apr 17). While remaining tight-lipped about it, Grewal said he wants to dig deeper into his flawed protagonist. "I'm not trying to balance out the good and the bad for the sake of balancing them. I'm saying it as is, while going into the human mind. I am trying to understand what made him become who he became."

Grewal's last web series, ‘Made in India: A Titan Story', won wide praise when it began streaming this June

That philosophy extends to Rampal's preparation for the role. For both the actor and Grewal, playing a real-life person is not about becoming a physical replica of him, but about capturing his spirit. The director elaborated, "The idea of telling the story of a real-life person is never to impersonate him. Be the person in your head, not in the physicality of it. I'm not a fan of actors trying to match the look. Many times, the actor might look like the person, but their performance goes down by 10 or 20 per cent, because they can't move their facial muscles in order to embody the performance."