Not here for fame, but to contribute to cinema: Rajkummar Rao on 15 years in movies

When people think of me, I want them to remember me as someone who was in the film industry for the right reasons, says actor Rajkummar Rao on completing 15 years in Bollywood.

From playing supporting roles in Rann, Gangs of Wasseypur, Talaash, and Kai Po Che!, the actor gradually moved to leading man roles in movies Shahid, Aligarh, Trapped, Newton, Bareilly Ki Barfi, Badhaai Do, Stree 2, and Bhool Chuk Maaf.

“When people think of me after many years, I want them to think of me with a lot of respect, somebody who took his work seriously and who was here for the right reasons, for the right intentions, and not for fame, but to contribute to our cinema,” Rao, who made his debut in Bollywood with a three-second role in Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Rann in 2010, said.

The 40-year-old actor said he feels blessed that over the years, audiences have connected with his work.

“When a film works, you can see that a film has genuinely worked. Now, people think every figure that is coming out is a bogus figure, but it’s not like that. It’s like saying every actor calls the media or they don’t, no, it’s not true. I don’t, I haven’t called the media ever in my life.

“I talk to my producers and distributors to know about how the film (has performed), and they won’t lie to me. They would tell me exactly what happened. When you go to theatres, there is an audience, which is almost full or 70-80% full, you know people are coming and watching the film. That’s the only way to judge whether it’s working or not,” Rao said.

Rao is excited to step into the role of an action hero in the highly anticipated film “Maalik”, directed by Pulkit of Bhakshak fame.

Sharing his long-standing desire to dive into action genre, the actor said, “It was not the first time somebody offered me an action film; I was offered this genre before, but I couldn’t connect with those stories. But when I read this (‘Maalik’), I thought it was such a powerful story about this guy’s rise; the arc was beautiful.”

Citing the example of his roles in Srikanth and Mr and Mrs Mahi, Rao said he is eager to push the envelope further.

I was missing seeing myself doing something very different. Like last year, I’m glad ‘Srikanth’ happened, it was very different from ‘Mahi’. I want to do something that maybe I don’t expect out of myself,” he said.

While the actor has dabbled in the world of gangsters before, most notably in the black crime comedy series Guns and Gulaabs and the 2017 film “Omerta”, where he played a terrorist, he said that Maalik is completely different.

“This one is a full-blown action film. It’s one of those, massy, big commercial action films with the heart in its right place. There’s a great story attached to it, and there are great characters. So, it’s very, very different from whatever I’ve done to date,” the actor said, adding he approached the role of a gangster in “Maalik” without any preconceived notions.

“I wanted to go like a clean blank paper and put everything together with my imagination, with everyone’s help around me, with Pulkit’s vision that he had for Maalik,” Rao added.

His favourite films in the genre are Gopal Varma’s Shiva and Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur.

“There were things that (mainstream) actors wouldn’t do in the 70s, 80s, but now it seems very normal for actors to do that. Same with action, with the more violence in the film, it was not okay to do that in the 80s, 90s, 2000, but now it’s fine.

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“It’s always evolving, sometimes you go back to basics, sometimes you want to push it forward. It’s a part and parcel of the process,” the actor said, adding that his favourite action stars are Bruce Lee, Hugh Jackman, and Amitabh Bachchan.

Maalik also features Manushi Chhillar, Saurabh Shukla, Saurabh Sachdeva, Prosenjit Chatterjee, and Swanand Kirkire.

Produced by Kumar Taurani under the Tips Films banner and Jay Shewakramani’s Northern Lights Films, the movie is slated to release in cinemas on July 11.