Raj Kumar on his journey from ‘Love Sex Aur Dhoka’ to ‘Kai Po Che’

Three years down the line,Raj Kumar is making his mentor’s wish come true. Post his turn as the money minded Govind in ‘Kai Po Che’,28-year-old Raj Kumar plays the title role in Hansal Mehta’s Shahid,based on the life of slain lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi. Excerpts from an interview:

Ques: You’ve played some really interesting characters in a relatively short span,how do you select your roles?

Raj: I think I’m very lucky that I got these great scripts but at the same time I’m quite careful in selecting films. I’m very clear that three bad films and I’ll be out. I don’t have the privilege of doing 10 bad films because I don’t have a fancy filmi last name.

Ques: When you started out you were regarded as ‘that boy In that movie’. How do you think the man on the street relates to you now?

Raj: Before Kai Po Che,they used to call me Ragini ka ladka (refers to Ragini MMS) but now they call me Raj,which makes me happy.

Ques: Kai Po Che was your big turning point?

Raj: In a way,yes. For an actor to really make it in this industry,you’ve got to be on the poster. Kai Po Che put me on the poster. There were too many of us in LSD. I was the lead in Ragini MMS but I wasn’t seen on the posters. But it’s still too early for me. I’ve just taken few tiny steps,I still have 50 floors to cover.

Ques: Why did you drop ‘Yadav’ from your name?

Raj: I always found Raj Kumar Yadav to be too long a name. So many people would come to me and ask me if I’m Rajpal Yadav’s brother. I prefer Raj Kumar. Actually,I prefer Raj.

Ques: When did you actually decide to become an actor?

Raj: The acting bug bit me in Gurgaon when I was in class VII. I was an average student but I dabbled in martial arts,dancing and started acting in school plays. It was during one of our stage performances that I was mesmerised. I used to hero worship Amitabh Bachchan,Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. I remember watching Bachchan’s Agneepath and crying for hours,thinking,‘Hey bhagwan,why did he have to die?” When I watched Hum,I became Tiger and for one month I would talk like him. When I saw Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Ram Jaane,I used to think I’m SRK. Then I learnt the nuances of acting in FTII,Pune,and realised that there is more to acting than just beating up 10 people. My ultimate dream is that when 100 years down the line,they make a list of top five actors of Indian cinema,I am on that list.

Ques: Tell me about your struggling days in Mumbai.

Raj: Not just Mumbai,I struggled in Delhi too. I come from a middle-class family and it wasn’t always economically feasible for me to buy a bus ticket. I used to cycle 70 km everyday from Gurgaon to Delhi so that I could participate in my plays. I came to Mumbai in 2008 and faced a lot of rejection before LSD happened. I was told I wasn’t fair enough or that I don’t have the looks to play a particular part.

Ques: Let’s talk about Shahid. Since you play a real-life person,how did you inhabit his mind?

Raj: In my head,Shahid Azmi stood for humanity. He was helping those who couldn’t help themselves. As Raj,that’s also how I think. For me,that was the seed of the character. There are only two photographs of Shahid Azmi available in the public domain. There is no YouTube recording,which I could take pointers from. I spent a lot of time with his brother and friends and tried to pick up as much as I could about him. I’m a Hindu boy but when I said yes to the role,I decided to learn about Islam because I wanted to get into the head of a Muslim boy. So I read the Quran. I learnt how to perform the namaz. In fact,when we were shooting with 50 boys in the camp,I taught them the correct way of praying.

Ques: You have also shot a naked scene in Shahid?

Raj: Yes. It wasn’t easy. We shot the sequence on the last day of the shoot. By then,I was so into the character that I could feel him inside me. I was never meant to go naked in the film but I wanted to feel Shahid’s pain and mental harassment that he must have gone through in the lock up,so I insisted Hansal sir to allow me to do a naked scene. I told my co-actor to hit me as hard as he could. I insisted that everyone on the set should see me naked,so it feels real. I cried for hours afterwards. That’s when I knew I had experienced an actor’s pure moment.