‘Main hi karunga’: Kanu Behl recalls how Rahul Roy cast himself in Agra as Bollywood stopped calling

“We always knew we probably need some sort of a face in the casting of the seven primary characters. Because none of the others weren’t prominent faces,” said Kanu. Agra starred newcomer Mohit Agarwal as the protagonist Guru, Ruhani Sharma, Priyanka Bose, Devas Dikshit, Vibha Chibber, and Rahul Roy, with the latter playing Daddy ji, the protagonist’s father.

“Ruhani is a big star down South. But at that point, she was also just starting out,” said Kanu. “So, I felt like we needed a little something. We talked to a few people who were not completely unknown, including Rahul. He was looking to transition into something he usually doesn’t do,” he recalled. But Kanu wasn’t certain of the casting, and he did three-month workshops with three actors as options for all seven primary characters, including Daddy ji, and selected the final casting halfway through.

Rahul Roy recreates his Aashiqui performance at a Bihar wedding.

“In that environment, for someone with the pedigree of a Rahul Roy, with the history that he has, to come in every morning at 9 am and be the last one to leave at around 10-10:30 pm, that just that had me hooked early on,” said Kanu. He then recalled one particular night, when it was just the two of him left at the workshop, having chai together.

That’s when Rahul took him by surprise and said out of the blue, ‘You know what? Ye picture main hi karunga. Aur koi nahi karega. Main bata raha hu aapko. (I’ll only do this film. No one else will. I’m telling you right now).”

“I think that made the final decision for me because he wanted to do it so bad, and he was putting so much into this, that he’s probably the right choice,” said Kanu, adding with a smile, “He didn’t give me a choice. He cast himself.”

Besides Rahul’s “exemplary dedication”, Kanu also argued that what sealed the deal was that the character of Daddy ji demanded the kind of life experiences Rahul had had in his own. The actor, who broke out with his debut film, Mahesh Bhatt’s 1990 musical romantic drama Aashiqui, could never replicate the success of that mega hit. While he continued to work in films through the 1990s, work began drying up once he entered the new millennium.

Winning the inaugural season of popular reality show Bigg Boss in 2007 lent him a minor resurgence, but Rahul couldn’t sustain it with memorable work on the big screen. After a special appearance as himself in the 2019 romantic thriller Cabaret on ZEE5, produced by Mahesh’s daughter Pooja Bhatt, Rahul had a brain stroke in 2020, which affected his speech skills permanently. After his return in Agra couldn’t yield desired results, Rahul has been seen doing minor gigs, including performing to his popular track “Ek Sanam Chahiye Aashiqui Ke Liye” at a Bihar wedding last year.

Last Sunday, Rahul cleared the air about his financial condition and the rumours of him being abandoned by his family. “I live at my sister’s place. We have a lovely house in Madh, and I’m deeply loved by her, which makes me the luckiest brother in the world. I have clothes, I have shoes, I have food, I have a car, and I’m not an abandoned person on the road. The way fake videos are coming out is not true. My sister, Hari Maa, and my brother-in-law, Romeer Sen, have provided me with everything. Please do not disturb their sanity. They are the only thing that is left to me,” he wrote on Instagram.

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“I don’t take bodyguards, that’s my personal choice. If I sometimes travel by autorickshaws, it’s easy and quick; it’s my personal choice. I did those reels with simplicity, not with clever thoughts. It was work and not any financial help to me. I always think work is work; that’s my personal choice. My decisions are my choice. I waited for good work long enough, but it didn’t come. I cannot sit and waste myself. And, of course, I have to look after my personal court cases too,” added Rahul.