Gajraj Rao on playing terrorist in Aamir, eating food non-stop for one close-up: ‘Didn’t eat mutton for 6 months after that’

Speaking about the film, the actor told indianexpress.com how he first landed the role: “Raj Kumar Gupta, the director, was an assistant director on Black Friday, and he had extracted a promise from me then that I would have to work with him on his directorial debut, and that is how Aamir happened.”

The actor, despite hardly being seen in the movie, was a looming presence in the movie, thanks to his chilling voice as we hear him speak to the protagonist over phone at quick intervals. Speaking about a particular scene where his character is seen biting into a plate of mutton and rice as he asks Rajeev’s Aamir to chew on dates for sustenance, Gajraj said, “Imagine eating that oily food continuously from 7:30 am to 12 pm. I didn’t eat mutton for 6 months after shooting that. I was asked to pretend, but that pretension is not my style, plus it was a tight close-up, so it would have become obvious that I was not eating the food, but only pretending to eat it.”

Talking about the dates-eating bit, Gajraj added, “So these people, when preparing for what they have to do, often eat dates since it is said to be nutritious, cheap and filling. And according to my character, he was preparing Rajeev’s character for some kind of jihad, which is why he keeps asking him to eat those dates, while he himself is enjoying all kinds of delicacies.”

When quizzed about if he had any blue-prints in mind, any reference point to play the diabolical role, the actor signed off stating, “I watched the Hindi film villains to understand kya nahi karna hai. I wanted to avoid that loudness and melodrama.”

To see Gajraj Rao in action as an evil incarnate, you can stream Aamir on YouTube.