Actor Rajesh Kumar, who recently won hearts yet again with his stint in the Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer Haddi, gets candid with The Pioneer about breaking his standard image of Rosesh Sarabhai, working on the project, and more.
SHIKHA DUGGAL
Seasoned actor of all time Rajesh Kumar finally broke his standard image with a tale of revenge and retribution set in the world of transgender people — and let us tell you, he’s grinning and how.
Eventually, it broadened his base, and he dvelved into the characteristics of a vicious goon. Yes, it’s an ultra-violent movie, but our interviewee’s role stays in that zone and keeps us engaged. In an exclusive interview with someone with decades of experience in this industry, he spoke to us at length and continued to make us guffaw and chuckle. He shared, “Finally, I had my moments of earnestness. I was desperate to explore the other dimensions I have to offer this industry. But, when? Sarabhai vs. Sarabhai confined me; unfortunately, I was typecast. Many of the casting directors have actually told me, Sir, it’s difficult to break your image of Rosesh Sarabhai. What do we do now? These are the kinds of discussions we used to have. When they approached me for Haddi, I inquired a lot about whether the casting director was serious or not. Since the discussions around me sort of started to make me feel underconfident, let’s change the perception of your comedy now! That was the idea!”
The director requested that he put on some weight and go for a complete crew cut to bring in that conviction. Simultaneously, he was shooting for another film with Pankaj Tripathi in the United Kingdom. Luckily, that got over, and Rajesh was supposed to start shooting after three days of that schedule. The unbelievable happened as soon as he went bald—three new film offers fell into his lap! Rajesh started to wonder: Was the industry waiting for me to just go hairless or what? Both of us laughed out loud. Also a film producer, he continued, “They locked me up without doing an audition. The team went with their gut, especially Anurag Kashyap. This reminded me of my famous stint, where my former creator never auditioned anyone else for the role of Rosesh. The maker’s belief in me! This confidence returned after twenty years. Ab maza araha hai khelne mein.”
They tried to dilute the immense violence with Rekha Bharadwaj’s songs, but when he was doing that specific scene of massacre, he recalled, “There was so much firing going on in that scene that, literally, in the shot, I have put both my fingers into my ears because I couldn’t tolerate it. Anurag was wearing headphones, which was hilarious. What about me?”
The reason for him to sign this film was how an untouched theme was being explored: the smuggling of bones in the early years of medical colleges. Nobody ever did that in the movies! It was a shocker for him; he was intrigued to know how they do it. So he went for it! He was imagining the gory and scary sight of it. In that scene, all of a sudden, he was out of human emotions as well.
He continued, “It’s been twenty-five years of me in this industry. It was getting difficult for me to break the ice with Nawazuddin Siddiqui. There was a particular scene when that ice broke, and after the cut, he goes, It’s so nice to do scenes with you because I
am not worried about giving cues to my co-actor. And then, when the look test images were being shown to Anurag Kashyap —on my picture—he literally said that I am a new find for this industry. I was flattered. Apparently, he didn’t see my most popular show. In conversation with the former, I mentioned I am from Bihar. He was ecstatic! That’s how I bonded with my seniors.”
Even the ensemble cast was so strong that Rajesh had to say yes! Watching Nawazuddin Siddiqui transform on the sets put our interviewee in disbelief. He described, “The first time I saw him on the sets, I was shell-shocked. I was confused. Is it really Nawaz? I called his make-up artist, inquired, and he said yes, it’s Nawazuddin. I go “Aisa kya lagaya tune, pura hi change kardiya.” If you look into his eyes, you could sense he’s really into the role of a transgender person, and that’s how great transformations need to be done in this industry. He sealed the role!” On a final note, “Rupali Ganguli is very instrumental in keeping the group of Sarabhai vs. Sarabhai together till date. She really is the one who brings all of us together, even in the middle of hectic schedules. She starts preparing a month before these reunions because she loves all of us so dearly. We have a WhatsApp group! We have some bitching going around, but that’s fine (he laughed out loud). Nothing has changed between us; we still don’t live in reality. Rupali and I are still not taken very seriously in the group, and that’s the way we would like to be.”
