Actor Randeep Hooda’s cinematic journey began over 20 years ago with Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, which took him to the Venice Film Festival. Among his cherished memories from that experience is an incident where he was ignored at an Armani store as he had no money.
Randeep looks back
Randeep recently visited Delhi for an event and sat down with Hindustan Times to reminisce about his career. During the conversation, he looked back at his journey and shared an anecdote about a major fashion faux pas he committed at the premiere of his debut film at an international film festival.
Hailing from Rohtak in Haryana, Randeep spent almost six years in Australia as a student and worked as a taxi driver at night. His Australian accent eventually landed him his first big break in 2001 with Mira Nair’s film Monsoon Wedding. The film was screened at the Venice Film Festival in 2001 and won the Golden Lion award at the festival.
Randeep walked down memory lane when asked about his biggest fashion blunder. The actor tells us, “Well, I remember when I had gone to Venice for the screening of the film Monsoon Wedding at the Venice Film Festival. I didn’t have any money, and a friend of mine gave me some money to go and suit for the screening.”
“So, I went to buy a suit at an Armani store in Venice. The people at the Armani shop in Venice didn’t entertain me at all. When I looked at the labels, I figured out why. So I had nothing to wear,” added the actor, who walked the ramp for the Blenders Pride Four Elements fashion event in Gurugram recently.
Randeep continues, “So I had these fluorescent corduroy jeans, green ones, and a black shirt.. The designer from the movie gave me a red shawl. So the premiere of my first movie, watching it on such a big screen with crowds of people, signing my first autographs, taking photographs at that screening… And I was wearing fluorescent corduroy jeans with a black shirt and red shawl. I can’t imagine what that would have looked like now.”
On his fashion mantra
Randeep, who was last seen in the film Jaat with Sunny Deol, prefers a laid-back approach to fashion, opting for comfort over experimentation. He says he likes to stick with what makes him feel at ease.
“I’m not too much of a fashion victim. I just pick up and wear whatever I lay my hands on, what’s on the top layer of the wardrobe. It has to keep changing, otherwise I will just keep lifting the top,” says Randeep.
When it comes to his fashion mantra, Randeep shares, “It is T-shirt and jeans or shorts.”
“Keep the classic and tick the right boxes… Some people like to experiment a lot. That’s also good. But I don’t get into that too much because there’s too much stress. I want to be comfortable. So I like fashion that makes you feel like you and comfortable,” he ends.