Vir ras of Doon

As the accolades for his film Delhi Belly continue, comedian and actor Vir Das is readying for the release of his first serious film Raakh. Vir, who has acted in a handful of Bollywood films, including Badmaash Company and Mumbai Salsa, will be seen opposite Raima Sen in this Tanuja Chandra directed movie.

"Raakh is a small film set in a rural Bhopal. It is my first serious role; I don't think I have smiled in the entire movie. We have wrapped shooting recently," reveals the actor, who was born in Dehradun. Despite being a comedian, Vir has decided not to play funny roles in movies. According to him, even though Delhi Belly is an adult comedy, his character is quite a sad one. The Aamir Khan production has Vir playing one of the three young men in north Delhi who go through three horrible days.

"My role is of a sad person. Horrible things happen to my character in the course of the movie - he is unhappy with his job and is dumped by his girlfriend. I don't act funny in the film, the comedy happens in spite of it," he says.

Everybody is talking about the good camaraderie among the three main characters played by Vir, Imran Khan and Kunal Roy Kapoor. "I have never had so much fun while working on any movie, which entirely hinges upon the chemistry between the three boys, so we worked hard at becoming friends," he states.

Meanwhile, though his solo number Jaa chudail from Delhi Belly is topping chartbusters, shooting for it was difficult for the actor as he had to groove wearing five-and-a-half inch platform heels. The song is a tribute to the dancing style of yesteryear actor Mithun Chakroborty with influences from the style of great American singer Elvis Presley.

For the 32-year-old, dancing doesn't come very easily; hence he was petrified when he got to know that a senior choreographer like Farah Khan would be choreographing the song composed by Ram Sampath.

"I was terrified because she is a senior and I had heard that she is quite a task master. The rehearsals were pretty intense since I was a newcomer. I rehearsed for 14 days to get the steps right," recalls Vir, who watched videos to get the style right.

He saw more Elvis videos than Mithun videos because "I have grown up watching Mithun; so I know those moves," he adds. "Shooting solo for a Bollywood song was a big high for me and a great deal of fun. It was a crazy dance number; but the most difficult part was that I had to dance in five-and-a-half inch platform heels, which was nothing less than a nightmare. The outfit was made of pure latex, so there was no ventilation. But overall I had fun. Farah is amazing to work with," he smiles as he jokes, "I'm an item girl now."

"But I didn't really realize till now the power Hindi film songs have and I never understood what a solo song can do for you. Now I know. I heard people calling me Chudail on the road. I was disturbed and flattered at the same time," Vir told in an interview.