Aakanksha Singh’s not worried about being labelled as the hero’s wife in Runway 34

Five years after Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017), actor Aakanksha Singh is back to Bollywood with Runway 34. But the actor considers the upcoming thriller to be her debut vehicle in the Hindi film industry. “For me, Runway 34 is a very big opportunity. I’m treating it like my debut film here,” says Singh, who plays actor-filmmaker Ajay Devgn’s wife in the film.

Ask her if she was apprehensive about playing and being labelled as just the hero’s wife, and she says, “No! My character is an important part of the film. She isn’t a trophy wife. She’s the one to pushes him to do better when he feels low. She has her own identity in the film.”

Apart from Singh, Runway 34 has two other female actors playing pivotal parts, namely Rakul Preet Singh and Angira Dhar. And the actor dismisses talks of any kind of insecurity, saying, “Feeling insecure of other female actors won’t take me anywhere, and I’ve none. My job is to act and give my 200%. We were a team and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them.”

So, how was it being directed by Devgn? “We all know how brilliant an actor he is. But he’s a very sound director too. His technical brilliance speaks for himself. He’s a man of few words. But when it comes to a scene, he knows what he wants, and he conveys that to his actors with a lot of clarity. After performing a scene, he used to say cut and then go to the monitor to take a look at it, He’s very calm,” explains the 31-year-old.

Aside from from sharing screen space with him, prepping and shooting also made Runway 34 an interesting experience for her. “For the first time, I was on a set with 12 cameras. Everywhere I looked, there was a camera (laughs). It also feels special that the film’s muhurat shot began with me and the last shot ended with me,” Singh shares with a smile.

Talking about her plans post Runway 34, the actor says, “But I hope there’s no looking back after this. I want to do both commercial and content-driven films. I hope it paves the path for me to keep doing good work.”