From conquering his fear of heights to mastering horse riding in four days, Bollywood actor Abhimanyu Singh says his acting career has given him a variety of experiences. In this 15-year journey, Singh has done 30 roles playing the villain, including in the Hindi film, Mom.
With the Tamil film Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru, Singh takes on yet another evil role in an investigative thriller based on true incidents. In the movie, he plays Uma, a gang leader from Rajasthan.
Singh describes Uma as a wolf who attacks with the pack but can be equally dangerous alone.
“Uma is an insane kind of person,” Singh said. “Robbing and killing go hand-in-hand with him. There are reasons for his behaviour. His gang has a history of 500 years of war during which time they have been manipulated. Living in hiding and concealing their identity is bound to bring out anti-social behaviour. They are a superstitious bunch too.”
In the film, Uma is pursued by a police officer from Chennai.
After listening to director Vinoth’s description of Uma, Singh worked hard on making him interesting by focusing on his body language.
“Vinoth is a boon to actors. He is never scared of trying out something new. I liked his realistic approach to the characters,” said Singh.
Learning horse riding in four days, Singh added one more skill to his repertoire.
“The first two days that I rode a horse, I had someone controlling it with a rope around its neck,” he recalled.
On the third day, Singh was on his own. That day the horse refused to listen to him and kept on running for 7km at a stretch. Singh realised that he was in trouble.
“I had no safety equipment and was scared but I held onto him,” he said.
The situation was salvaged when the horse turned and started running towards the camera.
Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru is Singh’s fourth Tamil film and his first with lead actor Karthi.
“He [Karthi] was focused on achieving the scenes better than what it looked on paper and ensured in getting little details right,” Singh said.
Singh has also worked in Telugu films and has Oxygen, directed by Jyoti Krishna, coming up.
“It’s not easy trying to get into the psyche and behaviour patterns, which are far removed from one’s own personality,” said Singh of the villainous roles he has played. “Some intense characters linger long after it’s over on screen.”
A native of Patna, Singh intended on making a career in the Indian Civil Services but after college, he found his calling while watching a stage show of Makarand Deshpande’s theatre group. The Mumbai stage beckoned him and after eight years in theatre, Singh got a break into cinema with Aks.
“Acting gives you freedom to express your thoughts,” he said.
Now this father of two is picking roles cautiously, as he does not want his children to see him bashing up people. He has wrapped up three Hindi films where he plays positive characters — an intelligence agency officer in Anil Sharma’s Genius; a badminton coach in Radhe Shyam’s Marudhara and a positive gangster in Sekar Suri’s Guns of Benares.
