TLI Staff
New Delhi: Rajkummar Rao has proved his mettle once again, this time in comedy genre in recently-released Made In China where he plays a quirky man from Gujarat.
Next up, his fans will soon see the actor in films like Turram Khan, Rooh Afza, Netflix film The White Tiger and more.
During a chat on No Filer Neha, Rajkummar Rao opened up on issues close to his heart, his school and college days, his struggle phase, and working with Priyanka Chopra in Netflix movies adapted from Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger.
For The White Tiger, Rajkummar Rao is currently working on his New York accent. The actor is also mighty impressed with his co-star PeeCee who loves to involve herself in the process of filmmaking.
“I’m very excited. Nervous also because I know it will be a different process but a process I’m pretty sure I’m gonna enjoy. I met PC, we’ve had couple of reading sessions and she is a great girl. I’m going to have some New York accent and put in a bit of a New York accent.”
“PC is a very chilled out girl, she is a really great actor. Like how she would come up with ideas and we would improvise and she would be completely involved. That’s a great quality I think,” he added.
Rajkummar Rao who’s an FTII alumunus started his film career with Love Sex Aur Dhokha in 2010, and won national award for Shahid. He shared an interesting incident that happened while auditioning for a role in his struggling period.”
“I had just shifted to Mumbai, I think it must have been like 4-5 months. I got to know that there is this director and he is planning for this film and he is meeting actors. So I went there to meet him and he gave me a scene to perform. It was a very normal, conversational scene. I did that and then suddenly, I don’t know what he thought, he said can you do the same thing like how a monkey would do. And I didn’t understand what he was trying to say. And I was like, like a monkey, like really?? By that time I lost all my interest, I said you know what, I’m just gonna have some fun, so I did that. I was all over his table and his chair, and became a full monkey. Because then I said you know, let me just have fun and get out of here. So I did that.”
When Rajkummar finally landed a role in Dibaker Banerjee’s Love Sex Aur Dhokha, he came to know that he had to do a nude scene in the film.
“So I got the call and I was, of course, very happy. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. And then after two days I met Dibakar and he then told me that you know there is a scene where you have to be fully naked in the scene. It took me seconds to just understand it and I then I said yeah it’s fine, it’s my job. And I said yeah anything for my part but I knew that I now have to tell my parents and my family. But they were very cool. I just told them, I didn’t even ask them. I just told them ki listen there is this film I got, they were very happy. And then you know in the last scene I might be naked – they were like What! I said mujhe nanga hona padega shayad! I said no only back, only back, no frontal nudity but they were very okay about it,” he said.
Rajkummar Rao was a huge fan of SRK and when he first came to Mumbai and he waited for hours outside Mannat to catch a glimpse of him. Years later while shooting at Mehboob Studios, he had a big fan moment with him as the superstar made him feel very special.
“I met him in Bombay only at Mehboob Studios and before that I was growing up in Delhi, I could feel that connect you know because he is also from Delhi and he made it so big. Actually, first time when I came to Bombay, I would just stand outside Mannat, for hours for like 6-7 hours I would just stand there. Trying my luck that I might get to see him. I saw Gauri though so I felt so happy, “Gauri, Gauri Ma’am,” the actor said.
“I didn’t get to see him, then I was also shooting at Mehboob for something then I got to know that he is here so I called Shakun and said ki listen I want to meet him, he said yeah sure, let me just tell him. But then almost after 15 mins I got a call from Shakun that go meet him he is done. So I entered the van and I saw him, first time like live, the real SRK, but he was so sweet. He knew everything about me and he made me feel so special. I became a bigger fan after that meeting. He is so fantastic,” he added.
“He is so charming and after that of course now we are pretty close. Like I know I can message him, I know I can call him and he calls me and I still get pretty excited and you know that fan inside me would never die. I still feel very very happy whenever he calls me.”
Rajkummar Rao also shared nuggets from his student life and his worst hostel experience on the show.
“Worst? To clean those toilets! But I’m pretty finicky about cleanliness so one day, not one day actually I have done it some 3-4 times in 2 years, I would just call a friend and was like you know what we need to clean these toilets. We’re using them, nobody else cares but we gonna care.”
Rajkummar Rao said he was a fully filmy kid and would get into a lot of fights in school.
“I wasn’t a bad boy but I was a very adventurous kid. I was always outdoors, doing something or the other. I would get into a lot of fights. I was a filmy hero, I was not a gunda, I wouldn’t call it a gunda. So my friends, they would get into a fight and they would call me. I would just look for an excuse to get into a fight. It was like yeah ‘Raj ko aane de, Raj ko aane de’ and then I would go. I would go like a hero, I was a fully filmy kid,” he said.
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