Ranveer Singh opens up on the similarities between him and ‘Gully Boy’ character Murad

Ranveer got to be a part of history in the making when he chose to be a part of Gully Boy. The movie broke all records in the Bollywood box office and changed the music industry’s face as everyone acknowledged the underground rap scene in India. Bollywood blockbuster “Gully Boy” is based on the lives of rappers Naved Shaikh, popularly known as Naezy, and Divine (Vivian Fernandes). In the film, Ranveer’s character used rap as a tool to express his views on society and life in Dharavi, one of the largest slums of Asia.

Ranveer recently opened up about the similarities between him and Murad as he said many people who knew him said that the role was perfect for him or tailormade for him. He later revealed why and said that it was a combination of a lot of things that resonated with him, very deeply. “One is my love for Mumbai, I am a bonafide Mumbai lad so my love for the city where I am born – yeh meri karm bhoomi hai, janam bhoomi hai. So, it means a lot to me and I am very proud of my city, mahanagri isse kehte hain and I see all the beautiful aspects of it and I wanted to lay tribute to it if the opportunity were to come about and Gully Boy was that perfect opportunity,” he said. 

Ranveer also said that the Akhtar created a “love letter” for the city with the film. He said: “What Zoya created was a love letter to Mumbai and along with the theme of Mumbai city, there was rap and hip hop which also resonates with me very, very deeply. I started listening to rap and hip-hop at a very young age. A cousin of mine used to come over from the United States and being cassette tapes of Tupac Shakur and we used to listen to it and not that I understood those mature themes or was familiar with the language, but at that age was also realised that there was something very authentic about this man’s expression and I got hooked onto that kind of music very early on and have been listening to hip hop ever since. So much so that I used to look up lyrics on the internet, learn up the lyrics.”