TELEVISION MUSIC ‘LOOKING AT MY TUMMY FELT GOOD’

Rajkummar Rao talks about how physical transformation is just a part of his job

After having survived cutthroat competition in Bollywood, actor Rajkummar Rao is now raising the bar with each performance. The actor is next set to feature in the web series Bose, being directed by Hansal Mehta.

A while ago, Rajkummar shared a picture on social media showing how he went from sporting six-pack abs for Behen Hogi Teri, to going anorexic for Trapped, and gaining weight for Bose.

Responding to what makes him experiment in such drastic ways, the 33-year-old says it’s his job as an actor. “I want to push the envelope and nothing else. If my character demands me to lose or gain weight, I just do it. That’s what I expect from myself and people expect from me and I’ve been doing that,” he says.

Besides gaining 11 kgs to play Subhas Chandra Bose, the actor also shaved half his head. “I’m not doing something extraordinary. It’s all part of the job and nothing extra. When I used to look at myself in the mirror and see my head shaved half and that tummy, I felt good. As an actor, it helps internalise the drive because I don’t see my real self in the mirror but my character,” says the actor.

Rajkummar, though, admits that things weren’t easy. “It took me around a month and a half to put on 11 kgs for the role of Bose. I’ve always been very fit in all my films, and personally also, I believe in fitness. But, after putting on weight, you start feeling lethargic. I didn’t feel like myself in that body,” adds Rajkummar, who has played diverse characters such as Lord Shiva in Behen Hogi Teri, a 324-year-old man in Raabta and a transgender in Aami Saira Bano.

And what was the next goal that motivated him to shed all those extra kilos? The actor quips, “I had to lose it, as I couldn’t be like this forever. My reason was the fact that I like to be fit.”