When teetotaler Rajkummar Rao got dead drunk for City Lights

Acting is one tough job. Getting into the skin of the character is of paramount importance to lend credibility to your performance. And that sometimes demands you to do things that you would generally avoid in real life. Rajkummar Rao had a similar experience while shooting for Hansal Mehta's City Lights. A particular scene in the movie needed Rajkummar to enact a drunk sequence. In the scene, Rajkummar visits a bar, gets sloshed and arrives home dead drunk. Rajkummar who is a teetotaler in real life decided to take to the bottle in a bid to bring credibility to his performance. "I don't drink but I didn't want to fake it. So I asked Hansal, who is experienced in these matters, on the drink that I should be having. On his advice, I started off with vodka. I had about two pegs but nothing happened. Then I started downing a few more and after about five or six pegs, I was completely gone," revealed Rajkummar. The dead drunk Rajkummar then had to trot home and pick a squabble with his onscreen wife, Patralekha. The scary part here was the entire shoot sequence was unfolding on the eighth floor and Rajkummar was scared that he would lose control and fall. "After drinking so much, I had no control. We were shooting on the eighth floor and there was always an element of scariness. Finally after pack up, I had to get the entire alcohol out of my system," said Rajkummar. Well, looking at his drunkard act in City Lights, all we can say is that the vodka he drank really brought out the true spirits of Rajkummar to the fore. City Lights will open all across India on 30 May (2014).