Ranveer Singh Is No Joke

He’s the most energetic, indefatigable personality to come out of Bollywood in modern times, his off-screen persona even more compelling than his on-screen one. But in the midst of completing his most important – and darkest – work to date, Ranveer Singh reveals a mood he hasn’t before: The hours before the court jester hangs up his fool’s hat and retires for the night

- Megha Shah

It’s 1am on a wet, Tuesday night in October, and Ranveer Singh is in a funk. He’s slumped on a single-seater sofa in the living-room-cum-gym of his new 43rd- oor apartment where he lives by himself, wearing joggers, a grey cardigan, Saint Laurent slip-ons and a dark mood. There isn’t much furniture, except for an inanimate TV, primarily used for PlayStation. The place radiates a feeling of emptiness. Inside his head, thoughts ght for room.

He’s nished shooting for the day, but it isn’t unusual that he is awake. Or that he has chosen to work at this hour, or that his physio is waiting downstairs in the lobby for a routine session. Ranveer Singh suffers from insomnia. He’s awake almost the entire night, catching a couple of hours of sleep on a good day, rising at noon and chain-gulping about 30 cups of double espresso shots with two cubes of ice through the day.

Although it may not seem like it, his altered state of mind, which has rendered him incapable of any kind of chatting or foolery, isn’t rare either – this year, at least. For most of this time, he’s been shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s next pièce de résistance, Padmavati. And it’s nearly destroyed him.

“I think I’m losing my mind,” he says, oddly still and in a tone much quieter than his usual baritone.