Ranbir Kapoor is one of the few actors reinventing himself and his filmography. He hasn’t drowned himself in the characters he used to play, not even the roles that made him a household name. At a time when nostalgia has become Bollywood’s safest bet, Kapoor is choosing to do something new.
After years of disappointing box-office runs, Bollywood’s older stars are rediscovering the personas that once made them reliable stars. Akshay Kumar is finding his comic timing again, Sunny Deol is returning to his angry-man image, Ajay Devgn is slipping back into the cop’s uniform, and Emraan Hashmi is revisiting the anti-hero.
Kapoor established himself with Wake Up Sid (2009), playing a young man trying to understand himself and find his place in the world. It belonged to the slice-of-life tradition that has increasingly disappeared from mainstream Bollywood.
As his career progressed, that same emotional template became more layered and complicated. Barfi! (2012), Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013), Tamasha (2015), Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016) and Jagga Jasoos (2017) were wildly different films, but many of Kapoor’s characters could still be traced back to Sid, the young man searching for purpose, identity, love or a way out of the life expected of them.
These films also performed well enough to reinforce Kapoor’s image as the actor who plays roles of restless young men. Dialogues such as “Kahin pahunchne ke liye, kahin se nikalna bahut zaroori hota hai” (To reach somewhere, it is very important to leave somewhere) became inspirational shorthand for an entire generation.
Even in Rockstar (2011), there was still a version of Sid hiding underneath. He was a young man who wanted to create, escape the limitations of his family and become an artist. The difference was that art, love, rebellion and pain had become more intense.
Then came Sanju (2018). Playing Sanjay Dutt in Rajkumar Hirani’s biopic was the first time Kapoor moved so decisively into morally grey territory. This was not the charming, wide-eyed young man audiences see him as. He played a man struggling with drugs, relationships, addiction, privilege and self-destruction.
This is where Kapoor’s reinvention became visible.
In Brahmastra (2022), he became a superhero. Then in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal (2023), he moved even further away from the image audiences had built around him.
Kapoor’s character was aggressive, misogynistic, violent and deeply toxic, almost everything his earlier characters were not. Yet the character became one of the most talked-about performances in recent Hindi cinema. Three years later, people are still debating over his Ranvijay Balbir Singh. Audiences hated the character, admired the performance, copied his look and argued endlessly about what he represented.
Most importantly, Ranbir Kapoor did not try to make the character lovable. He allowed the character to remain ugly.
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The big role reversal
Now, he is coming to screens as Lord Ram in Ramayana, which is perhaps the biggest test of this reinvention. It is a character carrying enormous cultural and emotional weight. Actors who have played Ram on screen have often found themselves permanently associated with the role. Arun Govil’s portrayal in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan (1987–1988) became so iconic that it became difficult for audiences to separate the actor from the character. Decades later, Govil is playing Dasharatha in Kapoor’s Ramayana.
Kapoor has made a fascinating choice with this one. The attempted range is especially impressive. The actor who played a character associated with misogyny and violence in Animal (2023) is now playing one of the most revered figures in Indian mythology.
And he is ready to move on from this image as well. Next year, he is going to be seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Love & War. We will get our romantic hero back, but in a world likely to be far more dramatic and complex than the films that defined his early career. After that, he will star in Animal Park, the sequel to the character audiences found so disturbing in the first place, pushing Ranvijay even further.
That is why Kapoor’s career is interesting right now. He is not simply changing films; he is repeatedly changing the audience’s understanding of who he can be. This is where Kapoor’s journey differs from some of Bollywood’s other established stars. They all seem to be making a comeback in roles of past successes.
There is nothing wrong with an actor returning to what works. In fact, the box office often encourages it. But that is precisely why Kapoor’s career feels unusual. He is repeatedly asking the audience to accept a different version of him.
He was Sid. Then Jordan. Then Bunny. Then Ved. Then Sanju. Then Shiva. Then Ranvijay. Now he is Ram.
And perhaps the most interesting thing about Ranbir Kapoor is that he does not seem particularly interested in letting any one of them become his permanent identity.
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(Edited by Ratan Priya)