Ranvir Shorey Typecasting Has Always Haunted Me

With roles in mainstream blockbusters like Ek Tha Tiger, Singh Is Kinng, and Lakshya; independent films such as Khosla Ka Ghosla, Bheja Fry, Mithya, A Death in the Gunj, and Sonchiriya; and OTT series including Metro Park, Sunflower, and Tabbar, Shorey has earned a reputation as a versatile actor.

“I’ve tried never to repeat parts because I grew up on the fringes of the filming business. The word ‘typecasting’ has haunted me from the time I became an actor, and that has influenced a lot of the choices that I’ve made. So, each time, I try to do something new and completely different. That’s what the endeavour is,” the actor told PTI in an interview.

Ranvir Shorey currently stars in the series Pyramid Scheme, which revolves around ambition, greed, and the risky world of quick money.

Echoing similar concerns about being slotted into same roles, his co-actor from Pyramid Scheme, Paramvir Cheema said he has consciously tried to avoid falling into the trap.

“The fear of repeating myself would haunt me. I would mostly be offered Punjabi characters, silent parts. For instance, in case of ‘Border 2’, I had to convince the director (Anurag Singh) to don’t give me a character where I’ve to wear a pagri (turban), and that I can speak Haryanvi. I am glad he trusted me,” Cheema, best known for Border 2, Black Warrant, and Chamak, said.

Pyramid Scheme is set against the backdrop of culturally rich Haridwar and follows Goldy (Cheema), a charming and enterprising young man chasing a better life, who somehow finds himself pulled into the flashy, weirdly convincing world of pyramid marketing.

The Amazon Prime Video series is created by Shreynash Pandey and directed by Ashish R Shukla and Pandey. The script is written by Akshendra Mishra.

The show was initially conceived as a feature film but eventually evolved into a series format.

“It was better for me to make this a show because we had 300 pages written. As a film, it was difficult to sell it. Wherever we went, we got a lot of ‘gyaan’, but no one made it; everyone told us, ‘This should be made, this shouldn’t be made,'” Shukla said. “Until Sherry (Shreyansh) came on board and there was TVF that could support this — because the kind of subjects TVF was doing, in the entire industry, no one was doing that — it was very easy for them to believe in this,” the director said, adding that the team wrote the script for the show from scratch and added a lot of subplots to it.

Pandey, who has backed shows like Panchayat and Aspirants, said they instantly jumped at the idea of Pyramid Scheme. “If something creates a memory so deep and so strong in you, then you feel that this is a story worth telling. That’s why we said, ‘Let’s make this.'”

Despite being centred on scams, the series focuses on the human cost of such schemes, including strained relationships, shattered aspirations and the sense of shame experienced by victims.

“Though it was also a satire or dark comedy, the attempt was to make it humane. Also, we wanted it to be people’s story rather than the characters just becoming black and white,” Shukla said.

Ranvir Shorey said while the show revolves around a fraudulent scam, what truly drew him in was its deep dive into human nature.

“A lot of times, people, even after they have been conned, will not tell anyone. It’s like a personal shame that you carry. And like he (Shukla) said, that one thing — which every human being, no matter how desperate the situation life may have put them in, has — is a small flame of hope. When that is snuffed out, that is the violation.”

The Pyramid Scheme also stars Shekhar Suman, Aanjjan Srivastav, Alfia Jafry, Ashish Raghava, Akhilendra Mishra, Smita Bansal, Vijay Kumar, Indresh Malik, Ravi Bhel, Sushant Singh, Sonal Jha and Sadanand Patil. It is produced by The Viral Fever.