Riteish Deshmukh will have an uncharacteristic start to the year with Ramgopal Verma’s Rann that has him play Purab Shastri, an investigative journalist to Amitabh Bachchan’s Vijay Harshvardhan Malik, a media baron. Riteish, who reportedly got into the skin of the role describes himself in the movie as, “The guy with the mike and a lot of questions.”

After making a name for himself as an actor with a comic flair, Deshmukh is now looking to create a good mix. After Rann, he has within 2010, a romantic film Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai opposite newbie Jacqueline Fernandes (they also paired together in Aladin) and Housefull with a multistar cast comprising Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Deepika Padukone, Jiah Khan and Lara Dutta among others.

When we meet, it is Rann, a treatise of sorts on the media business as it exists, that becomes the fulcrum of our conversation. Not surprising since his political roots afforded the actor a ringside view of the media and its functioning much before his days as an actor. Deshmukh admits to being fascinated by both politics and media and is understandably excited about his outing in Rann as an idealistic reporter, true to his mentor.

“Rann is a lot of people with different perspectives. News is about perspective but you could look at it in different ways. For me it is very idealistic. News is a medium to transform, to help people – a lot of things happen from the time an incident takes place to the time it reaches people. What has happened has happened but manipulation or projection could transform that piece of information. Perspective could be wrong or right and the movie takes a look at that,” he avers.

In times when the media is under fire for trivialisation of news, his opinion of the media is exceptionally neutral.

“Everyone has a different take on news. It caters to different sensibilities but eventually it is a business. If the media is for you, you are happy. You try to draw a balance between what you want to say, and people who can handle it well are the winners. I don’t think I am in a zone to handle – I just react to it. Top industrialists and politicians handle the media.”

Be that as it may, he has been politically-correct with the media at all times. Among queries that are constant in his interviews is one about a political career or the lack of it. It is a unique aspect to the young actor that makes him something of an aberration. He chose films over politics (despite father Vilasrao Deshmukh’s political clout) and in a career spanning eight years, has successfully survived the setbacks. Deshmukh, however, reviews his choice rather matter-of-factly.
“Every son wants to be in his father’s shoes. I too grew up admiring my father and all the things he did to the extent that I thought I wanted to be there. As I grew up, I moved towards architecture and then towards films. I am enjoying what I do. I have stepped in a different direction but I love politics.”

He adds, “When I recently went campaigning for my brother, I realised how difficult it is. My brother feels the same way about acting. You wait on the sets for hours, give a shot – that to him is very difficult. But if you enjoy what you do, you don’t mind the effort. I have grown to love acting.”

That he is passionate about the profession is apparent in the alignment with his films regardless of their fate at the box-office.

His candid take on Aladin, a contemporary adaptation of the fairy tale that was not well-received is an example. “Frankly speaking, I loved it before the release. I saw it post the reviews and I still liked it. It’s got mixed reviews-some gave it 1-1/2 or two stars but some have given it three stars, so yes, there are people who have liked it and others who haven’t. The problem with Aladin was that the number of people who went to see it was very less. Somewhere we failed to push it to a 70-80 per cent turnout. I don’t know whether 50 per cent would have liked it or not if we had. Also, a lot of people had their own notion of Aladin- like whether the genie should have been blue ... the truth is that when a film does not do well, everything is a problem.”

Reported to have touched the crore high-mark during the industry’s boom period, Deshmukh is not in a hurry to rake in the moolah. He would rather stretch his limits as an actor and work on creating a formidable repertoire.

“It is human nature to overtrade. Three corporate houses offered me three film deals. I did not get into them because I would not be able to sustain it.”

If Rann wins the box-office battle, Deshmukh will have the last laugh.