His filmography may be dominated by comedies, but Riteish Deshmukh likes to throw a curveball when you least expect it. After a spate of comic turns, the actor will be seen as the villain in Marjaavaan, which also stars Sidharth Malhotra.

Remind him how his psychopath killer turn in Ek Villain (2014) won him much acclaim, and Deshmukh states that the two antagonists are poles apart. "Rakesh Mahadkar [his character in Ek Villain] is, the boy next door, easily forgotten in a crowd. But Vishnu in Marjaavaan is a 180-degree turnaround from that. He is vertically challenged, but larger-than-life, arrogant and brash," he says, adding that empathy is the key to portraying troubled characters. "I try to find the emotional core. I need to understand why he is the way he is."