MUMBAI: Actor Harshvardhan Rane is looking to move beyond his established romantic-hero image, with action-oriented projects including Force 3 and Ram Gopal Varma’s Police Company.
Rane has enjoyed renewed attention following the enduring popularity of Sanam Teri Kasam, while Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat further strengthened his standing as a romantic lead. However, the actor says he does not want to remain restricted to romance and is now eager to take on more action-driven roles.
“I don’t want to be stereotyped as just a romantic hero,” Rane said while discussing his upcoming projects, pointing to Force 3, in which he stars alongside John Abraham, and Police Company as opportunities to showcase a different side of his acting.
Harshvardhan Rane Praises Ram Gopal Varma
Rane is particularly enthusiastic about working with filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, whom he has admired for years. The actor is currently shooting Police Company, in which he is expected to portray Mumbai police officer Daya Nayak.
Despite Varma’s reputation for being a demanding filmmaker, Rane said his experience so far has been remarkably positive.
“I didn’t feel so. I’ve been shooting with him for over a week now. He has been very nice to me,” the actor said, adding that the term “taskmaster” does not accurately describe his experience with the filmmaker.
Rane went a step further, describing Varma as a creative genius.
“If you love geniuses, you won’t consider sir a taskmaster,” he said.
‘I Love His Creative Pull and Push’
The actor also explained what attracts him to Varma’s filmmaking philosophy. According to Rane, working with an unconventional filmmaker requires an openness to experimentation rather than a rigid working structure.
“If you’re sitting with a real artist, you aren’t supposed to have a structure,” Rane said, describing Varma’s working environment as free-flowing and creatively unpredictable.
He said he appreciates the filmmaker’s willingness to challenge established filmmaking conventions.
Rane particularly admires the way Varma can master conventional filmmaking principles before deliberately breaking them. For the actor, that tension between established cinematic grammar and experimentation is part of what makes the collaboration exciting.
“I love that kind of creative pull and push. I love tension, I love undercurrents,” he explained.
Rane Keeps His Distance From RGV’s Social Media Persona
Ram Gopal Varma’s highly active and often controversial presence on social media has frequently attracted attention. However, Rane said he has largely remained removed from that aspect of the filmmaker’s public persona.
“I’m not on Twitter,” the actor said, adding that he has therefore not been exposed to the side of Varma that people often discuss online.
For Rane, the filmmaker’s thoughts on cinema and his approach to filmmaking are far more important.
He said Varma’s understanding of cinematic grammar is something he intends to carry with him, even if it is difficult to put the filmmaker’s creative philosophy into words.
From Romance to Action
Rane’s upcoming projects indicate a deliberate attempt to broaden his range. While his romantic roles have helped establish a strong connection with audiences, Force 3 and Police Company could give him an opportunity to build a different screen identity.
With John Abraham in Force 3 and Varma at the helm of Police Company, both projects place Rane in territory that is significantly more action-oriented than many of his recent romantic films.
For the actor, the transition is not about abandoning romance altogether but about refusing to be defined by a single genre.
As Rane takes on more action-driven characters, his upcoming releases could mark an important new phase in his career—one in which he gets the opportunity to demonstrate that his appeal extends well beyond the romantic-hero label.
NewsWireWorld.com Take: Harshvardhan Rane’s latest comments suggest that the actor is consciously expanding his repertoire. His collaboration with Ram Gopal Varma, in particular, could provide an intriguing opportunity to see him in a more intense and unconventional role.