RAO WON’T STICK TO ANY SINGLE GENRE
With quite a lot of releases this year, too, Rajkummar Rao talks about his desire to be experimental
Actor Rajkummar Rao had quite a busy 2017 with as many as five films and a web series releasing in the same year. And in 2018, too, the actor has his hands full with films such as Love Sonia, Omerta, Shimla Mirchi, Ami Saira Bano and Fanne Khan slated for release.
“I am grateful to all the filmmakers who consider me for all the different and varied roles. I want to keep challenging myself and do different stuff in every film and not to let it get boring for me, personally as well,” says Rajkummar.
The actor believes that only when one can push and challenges their limit, there’s fun being a part of the film industry. “Otherwise it gets monotonous. If you are comfortable doing only certain kind of cinema and you keep doing that for ages just because people like it, it gets corrupt,” he explains.
Did the fact that he was considered only for intense and offbeat characters, for the longest time, ever bog him down? “No, I was rather quite happy. I am proud of all the films that I have done, and all of them have given me great respect and people have gotten to know me because of films such as Shahid,
Trapped, Queen, Kai Po Che. They were all good stories and highly content-driven, and exactly what I want to keep doing.”
Even if filmmakers saw him fitting in a particular genre, Rajkummar is sorted that he won’t fall into that trap. “I don’t want to book myself in any one particular genre. I do [prefer] stories. I want to be part of good stories whether they are commercial or parallel.”
He adds, “If you have a slightly different angle to telling a story, that’s what people like to watch. But I also know there are no guarantees, and no formulas. Every film has its destiny. There have been films that spent huge money on its making but couldn’t earn [back] much. So, we can only try and make an honest film, work hard on a particular project, and then leave it to the audience.”