Dream come true, says the Indian teenager who co-stars with Chris Hemsworth
Radhika Bhirani
You’d typically expect a 16-year-old’s social media account to be dotted with selfies and groupfies with family and friends, but with actor Rudhraksh Jaiswal, who started his career as a child artiste, it’s a little different. The teenager’s posts are all about his “magical” tryst with actor Chris Hemsworth, with whom the former will be sharing screen space with, in an upcoming movie. Needless to say, he quite enjoys making his peers “jealous”. The excitement is palpable in the voice of the youngster, who has wrapped up his exams and is now looking forward to the release of his movie, where he plays a crucial part.
“It is about a bond between both the characters, which becomes very emotional by the end of the film,” says Mumbai-based Rudhraksh, almost recapitulating the course of his off-screen camaraderie with Hemsworth while explaining their reel bond. While the young actor first featured in TV show Mahabharat when he was all of 13, later bagged a role in the movie Noor (2017) apart from getting featured in some ads, landing a part in a movie with Hemsworth as he describes, is “a dream come true”.
“When I told my mom that Chris Hemsworth was working in this film, she was like, ‘Hain, ye kaun hai?’ I told her that he’s an Australian actor and plays Thor in Avengers, and then she got my excitement,” he recounts with candour.
On an emotional note, he shares that his mother – his biggest source of support and motivation -– comes from a remote village in Madhya Pradesh and their “middleclass family background” has translated into financial struggles off and on. He even faced social bullying, as a schoolmate wrote “gadhe padh bhi liya kar” on his Instagram, but going beyond his age, he says with conviction that his “aspirations are limitless”.
Hopeful that his role in the kidnap extraction drama set in India, will be a gamechanger for him, Rudhraksh says its producers Russo Brothers have assured him that they will cast him in a project again. “I don’t know, I might become an Avenger also,” quips the boy, who has umpteen experiences to share about his time with Hemsworth and the team.
Once, he narrates, that during a shot Hemsworth ended up leaving scratch marks on his chest and even apologised to his mother.
“But I was like, ‘No, no sir, I got your autograph on my chest’,” he recalls. In another instance, Hemsworth apparently touched Rudhraksh’s feet, reciprocating the little boy’s ‘desi’ gesture of showing respect. Rudhraksh is also the one who taught Hemsworth Shah Rukh Khan’s famous film dialogue, “Bade bade desho mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hain”.
When I told my mom that Chris Hemsworth was working in this film, she was like, ‘Hain, ye kaun hai?’ I told her he’s an Australian actor and plays Thor in Avengers, and then she got my excitement
RUDHRAKSH JAISWAL ACTOR