Mumbai, Mar 18 (IANS): Actor Randeep Hooda, who is gearing up for the release of his directorial debut ‘Swatantrya Veer Savarkar’, shared a picture of his physical transformation for the film on Monday.

The actor, who essays the titular role in his upcoming film, took to his X on Monday and shared a monochromatic mirror selfie.

He wrote, “KAALA PAANI #SwatantryaVeerSavarkar #WhoKilledHisStory #VeerSavarkarOn22March #BTS #behindthescenes #VeerSavarkar #Savarkar (sic)”.

The picture shows the actor having shed weight to suit the part of his character when the latter is sentenced to punishment in cellular jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Randeep looks lean with a receding hairline in the picture.

Randeep’s journey in the film has been a testing one. However, he found strength in his perseverance.

He earlier told IANS in an interview: “The journey was honestly quite testing given that it’s my first film as a director. However, I invested my energy in making the story more detailed. Normally, anyone would start with a film on a smaller scale or a short film for their directorial debut but, it was really not in my hands and it was not my intention to become a director of the movie but it happened as the film took its own course.”

“The opportunity came my way and I told myself, ‘Okay, now you gotta do it well like how you put your 100 per cent in acting’. I gave it my all and also learned many nuances of filmmaking. As an actor, you somewhere know about these things but you don’t really pay much attention to them. But, when you don the hat of a director, you need to closely monitor these things,” he added.