Recently, Randeep Hooda surprised everyone with his transformation for his directorial venture Swatantrya Veer Savarkar through a picture of himself showing off his lean frame, making way for comparisons with Christian Bale and Jake Gyllenhaal. And the actor reveals that the transformation comes at a huge cost of his body revolting to go back to normal and breaking several promises made to his parents.

“I was almost 92 kgs doing Inspector Avinash when I got onto this journey of transformation. In the OTT series, I was essaying the role of khata peeta police officer of Uttar Pradesh, and to come to this skeletal frame was a struggle,” Hooda tells us.

The 47-year-old adds, “The biggest struggle was that I had to lose weight quickly because I was already at the location. I had my sister with me. She has been with me in all my weight gains, losses and transformation for an act. She kept checking my pulse. During the transformation, I was irritated as I was hungry all the time and was directing the project as well. That took a toll on me”.

Here, he reveals that he knows people are comparing him to Bale and Gyllenhaal.

“I am glad about that. They are the people who I really admire and follow them as my inspirations for many years. The comparison is just heartening and makes you feel that you might be on the right path,” confesses the actor, sharing, “I have always felt that looking the part is important as you go through a lot of emotional and spiritual aspects of that character, which then translates on screen”.

This is not the first time when he grabbed headlines for undergoing a massive transformation. Earlier, Hooda went through a physical transformation for his 2016 film Sarbjit, for which he lost over 18 kilos.

Opening up about the toll the transformations take on him, Hooda says, “They do take a toll on me. My body takes a beating. For this particular movie, I was underweight. My weight was fluctuating for almost a year and a half, which was a big challenge. Now, I do have some pains in my body. My body is revolting against normal, but I’m sure it will come back to it.

“Everytime, I do a transformation, my parents take kasam from me, that I will not do this again. And I give them a promise. Then a project comes my way and it changes because I like the role so much. And it starts all over again. But the older you get the bodies become harder to manipulate. But I’ve been very lucky I’ve got good genes, and the hard work pays off when you hear the claps and appreciation for the role by the audiences,” he shares.

That being said, he has an advice for the young people looking up to him, and it is — You are fabulous the way you look.

“You don’t have to look a certain way. And if you want to look a certain way, you should do it systematically, don’t follow crash diets. You should have your aim. But one should not read beauty magazines. They only make you feel ugly. Being happy is more important than to have six pack abs,” he ends.