ENDEARING EVERYMAN RAJKUMMAR RAO
It’s easy to forget that Rajkummar Rao isn’t the hero of Bareilly Ki Barfi (BKB). His rough “Hallooo” and timid “Theek tha na” leave the audience in splits. And he’s so winning as the gullible Pritam Vidrohi, who is forced to pretend he is all machismo, viewers wind up rooting for him to get the girl. But BKB isn’t the only great work that Rao did this year. He brought a compelling tension to the story of a man abandoned in a highrise in Trapped. And there’s plenty more to come in 2017.
In mid-September, Rao heads to Toronto to promote the biopic-drama Omerta, in which he plays Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the Britishborn terrorist who kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl for Al Qaeda in 2002—resulting in Pearl’s murder. Rao then returns home to promote the black comedy Newton, in which he plays an idealistic rookie government official charged with conducting elections in Maoist Chhattisgarh. And he finished the last shooting schedule of a web series based on the life of Subhash Chandra Bose for ALTBalaji.
All those parts were written specifically for him, but Rao, 33, isn’t the sort to bask in adulation. “I don’t want to think that people have started writing roles for me,” he says. “I still want to be curious about what’s happening next. Everything is so momentary. What if it’s nota
there a year or two later?”
That should hardly be a worry. Rao’s endearing everyman appeal means audiences can relate to his characters’ situations, whether it’s fear (Ragini MMS), insecurity (BKB), helplessness (Trapped), deception (Love Sex Aur Dhokha), betrayal (Queen) or resilience (Shahid). He is also happy to be on the fringes if required. “I am not insecure,” he says. “It’s never about what I am doing in a scene. I want my co-actors to do better than me. The better they perform, the better I will.” That’s evident in Queen, BKB and Kai Po Che, in all of which he makes his presence felt regardless of screen time. “An actor’s thinking cannot be about who has more songs or who gets the girl,” he says. “That’s insecurity. I thought Pritam Vidrohi was a kickass, performance-driven role. It was a space I had not explored before.”
You won’t see Rao’s characters romancing women in foreign locations or beating baddies by the dozen—though when he began his acting career in Delhi, doing theatre, he wanted to be a conventional hero. It was while studying acting at the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, that his perception changed. “FTII gave me time and space to work on my craft. It gave me the touch of realism,” he says. He remembers a workshop in which filmmaker-actor Rajat Kapoor told him, “Calm down. It is not about proving a point, it is not a battle. Why are you struggling so hard? You just have to act.” At FTII, Rao discovered the work of actors such as Robert Duvall, Daniel Day Lewis and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Like them, Rao wants to transition from independent to mainstream movies. “I’m confident that I can do a commercial film,” he says. “I would [act] with the same sincerity. My process doesn’t change.” He loves to improvise and goes all out to prepare. For the upcoming web series, Bose, he shaved the front of his head and put on 12 kilos— after having lost eight kilos for Trapped and having built up his physique for Behen Hogi Teri.
And despite his enviable line-up of releases in 2017, he’s still focused on what else he wants to accomplish. “There are so many parts I want to do,” he says, citing crazy roles like those played by Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Brad Pitt in Snatch and Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. “I am still hungry. There is so much inside of me that’s dying to come out.” For both audiences and filmmakers, this restlessness is reassuring.
“I AM NOT INSECURE,” HE SAYS. “I WANT MY CO-ACTORS TO DO BETTER THAN ME. THE BETTER THEY PERFORM, THE BETTER I WILL.”