Mukesh Rishi

“When I agreed to play Ravana, I only had one condition that I get to modify the dialogues. One has to maintain the purity of the text, but the dramatization and the emotion behind it can be toyed with.”

“When you come to the South industry, they know that you don't know the language but it never becomes a barrier.”

“No matter who you are, you must wear proper gear while driving.”

“Since I got into acting, I always wanted to play a bad guy.”

“I think negative characters need to be cast in the best possible way because it has an impact on the film.”

“When we burn the Ravana, we are symbolically destroying the evil in our society. We need to remember this after the Ramleela is over.”

“Wherever I go, I try to see all the local markets and places which are popular in the city.”

“I played Sanjay Dutt's role in 'Son of Sardar' in a Kannad film. But because roles aren't being discussed and published that much people tend to think that I am doing only negative roles.”

“Being an actor, and a villain for various movies, I've played all parts of Ravana's persona already. But as familiar as all these parts of it may seem, playing Ravana is a different ball game altogether.”

“We, at one point, had such great villains with shades of grey and a compelling story around them. But Bollywood did see a decline when villains were nothing but aimless goons who had no real purpose to them.”

“I was in Fiji for some years. From there I went over to New Zealand to work as a store manager. But I was modeling for various companies at the same time.”

“Ashish Sharma and I are close friends and we share a very good bond on and off sets.”

“This I realized very late, that villain remains villain and are never able to become artists. We are never counted as actors and always addressed as villains.”

“If a character artiste accepts too many small roles his career dies a slow death.”

“I never like to keep people waiting; it gives a wrong impression about my personality if I am late.”

“My love for cricket, body-building and martial arts later helped me in modeling and then acting.”

“I was the vice-captain of Government College, Chandigarh, and around the same time, Kapil Dev was also representing his college. I knew his close friend very well, and I really respected his achievements when he started playing for the country.”

“I am happy with my work and I think my hard work didn't get wasted.”

“I have to exercise for at least two hours everyday.”

“I am from Jammu, but I studied in Chandigarh in sports quota.”