Important to keep morale of people up: Ronit Roy

Actor Ronit Roy believes at a time when the country is going through the coronavirus pandemic, maintaining positivity in life is of paramount importance.

The country is under a 21-day lockdown to check the spread of the COVID-19 and Ronit said there is uncertainty since no one knows when will things get back to normal.

"There is uncertainty we don't know when we are going to open up again to a regular life. We might come out of lockdown but life might still be restricted to a large extent.

"Everyone, every sector is affected. Let us talk about happy things and keep the morale of people up. Let's hope nature shows us some way out of this soon and we can all get back to work, Ronit told PTI.

The actor said he has been watching a lot of award-winning films as he likes to see the performances of other artistes.

"On the web, I spent two hours on the internet, I have finished Money Heist' because it was trending. I like to watch other actor's work, there are a lot of films that I want to watch, which have won Academy Award, especially for performances. I am trying to catch up on that. So more than work and entertainment, it is an educational trip for me, Ronit said.

He is confident that the entertainment industry will come back stronger once the menace of COVID-19 is over.

"In the event of the virus disappearing completely and having no new cases over a period of time, I am of the opinion that the entertainment industry will bounce back first.

The actor is excited about his critically-acclaimed Hotstar Special Hostages making its debut on TV. The show, directed by Sudhir Mishra, will air on Star Plus from April 13.

Ronit, who portrayed the part of SP Prithvi Singh in the web-series, believes it is a win-win situation for the show to air on TV as well because the audiences will then look forward to the season two.

For us, it is a good thing as Hostages' was a successful show. This way we will reach a wider audience. As soon as the lockdown is over Hostages 2' will come out, so more people will see it.

The show, which started streaming on May 31, 2019, is centred around Dr Mira Anand (Tisca Chopra) who is scheduled to perform a routine operation on the chief minister, but the night before the procedure, her family is taken hostage and she is ordered to assassinate her unwitting patient in order to save her family, forcing her to make a decision.

On the film front, the 54-year-old actor will be seen in Karan Malhotra's next big directorial venture Shamshera. The action-adventure film features Ranbir Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt and Vaani Kapoor.

Shamshera' is almost ready. It was always (meant to come) at the end of 2020 or beginning of 2021. I don't know exactly when. It is a highly entertaining film.

"Karan Malhotra is my favourite, he is an amazing person. It is a once in a lifetime experience working on a film like this, working with my favourite people like Dutt sahab and Ranbir, Ronit said.

The actor has also boarded the cast of director Puri Jagannadh's upcoming film, starring Vijay Devarakonda and Ananya Panday. Tentatively titled Fighter, the film is being simultaneously shot in Telugu and Hindi.

It is a pan-India film. It is about MMA. We have shot for some portions of the film and were supposed to shoot in April but I don't think it will happen, Ronit said.