‘Rashmi Rocket’ actor Priyanshu Painyuli on how Extraction changed his career

He is committed, he is lovable and most importantly he stands with his partner in her lowest phase – actor Priyanshu Painyuli‘s role as Taapsee Pannu’s onscreen husband in ‘Rashmi Rocket’ is a show-stealer even in scenes where he has no dialogues. An army officer who is also his wife’s cheerleader, this 33-year-old has portrayed the role of Captain Gagan with utmost sincerity and charm.

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Priyanshu says that the basic prep for the role was to understand how husbands actually behave in a way. He also said that while filming this Akarsh Khurana directorial, he got married and that helped too.

“…and in that course of time while I was shooting the film, I also got married and I became the real husband as well so that was the great learning in the sense that I was with my partner for 7 years so my idea was always to balance your partner. You are not backing them or they are not backing you, it’s together. Also, when the other person feels low or needs your love, you need to support them and likewise,” he told Opoyi.

Priyanshu has been getting appreciation for some interesting projects across genres in the last year. Whether it is playing the main antagonist in Chris Hemsworth’s starrer ‘Extraction’ or the flamboyant Robin in ‘Mirzapur 2’, he grows on you with each character.

In ‘Rashmi Rocket’, he played an Army officer with utmost ease but for that, he had to work a lot on his body.

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“There were not some push-ups but many. The idea was to build a body that looks like an army officer and I come from an army background as my father is a retired colonel. I have seen and studied in army school. Having said that, the Army officer which I am playing in the film is an athlete too who runs and represents the army in sports. I did not want to be a bulky heavy-looking commando so It took me to a two-three months to build muscles, cut down carbs and diets and that was the most problematic thing as you don’t eat the tastiest thing,” he said.

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But was it difficult romancing Taapsee onscreen?

“No, not at all. I had an image of her because of the kind of work she has done but when you meet her, she is very relaxed, chilled out, and fun. You can chat with her about choley bhature to anything and this is what we did. We spoke about food and this and that,” he said.

Talking about his choices as an actor right now, he says that he is totally satisfied

“I am waiting for more such roles where I can show a variety of performances. A lot of people ask me ‘ki fir apako hero nahi banana kya’ but the definition of hero has changed. What is a hero today? Today’s story is the hero because of the global content and the way we are looking at the web. The story graph is not similar to the way we used to see in the 90s as everything has changed.

“Actors like Rajkummar Rao , Vicky Kaushal to Ayushmann Khurrana, everyone is showing that you have to be sometimes bald or different to keep exploring yourself and that’s what I want to do. I want to keep doing different kinds of films and web. Last year was good because people saw me as Amir Asif in ‘Extraction’ and then Robin in ‘Mirzapur 2’ and some of them could not recognize the same guy,” he said.

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So how has your career changed after ‘Extraction’?

“Now people take me very seriously also that he can do a villain’s role, which wasn’t expected of him. I am glad that early in my career, I would say 2 years only, that I have got the chance to be in a Russo Brothers film.

“I think after ‘Extraction’, people realized that they can experiment with me so yes that variety is coming. People started accepting that he is a versatile actor. Also, I am looking at more international stuff because post ‘Extraction’, I got a lot of fan following from Spain, US and across the world,” he sums up.