We had no intimate scenes: Ankur Rathee on age gap with Maitreyi Ramakrishnan in Hollywood debut | Exclusive

Last month, Ankur Rathee marked his Hollywood debut with Hasan Minhaj’s Best Of The Best starring Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia. Ankur, 35, plays 24-year-old Priyanka’s boyfriend in the film. There’s also a subtle romantic tension he shares with Maitrayi, 24. Now, speaking exclusively to News18, Ankur says he had no apprehension about the age gap.

“Was I concerned? No. The only time there was a little bit of strain was when my ex-girlfriend in the film, played by Neha Anushka, was actually a 19-year-old student at UCLA in real life. That age gap was actually quite big. But we didn’t have any intimate scenes together, so that was okay. At the end of the day, as actors, we were quite comfortable,” he tells us.

Referring to it as ‘playing pretend’, he states, “We knew what our characters were and what our relationships were. We were just playing pretend. When you’re working with professionals like Maitreyi and others, you know that it’s just pretend. Other than that, you would’ve to ask the producers if they had any apprehension (laughs).”

Ankur, in fact, reveals the makers were initially looking for an actor in their early 20s to play his character – that of a college student – in the film, and he was brought onboard after they had exhausted all other options. “I was cutting down quite a bit for a few of my other productions at that time. Generally, what happens is, when you lose some weight, you end up looking a little younger as well,” he says.

The Thappad and Single Papa actor admits that despite being 35, he looked the part of a college student in his 20s and adds, “I would like to think that I looked young enough to play a college student. I would like to believe that I was believable enough for that age group. I also play a fourth-year university student in the film. So, even within the characters, there’s an age gap there.”

According to Ankur, the age gap between him and his female co-stars in Best Of The Best wasn’t as glaring as in most Bollywood films, where A-list male stars continue to romance heroines much younger than them. “In Bollywood, the gap gap between the male and the female leads is much greater. Visually, you can tell so. In my situation, they weren’t able to find someone,” he remarks.

“I wasn’t the first resort. I was someone they came to after they couldn’t find someone in that age demographic. In Bollywood, what happens is that hum wahaan tak sochte bhi nahi hai. A film goes to an A-list star and their age isn’t even an issue for the casting decision. It’s a bit different, I guess,” adds Ankur, who’s about to begin the shoot of his second Hollywood film very soon.