‘Bigg Boss stint changed perception of me’
Actor Rahul Dev has best been known for villainous roles. The roles offered to him in Bollywood films and down South too, have been largely of an antagonist. But, his stint in the reality show Bigg Boss-10 changed it all – for the masses and the people in the industry too.
Actor Rahul Dev has best been known for villainous roles. The roles offered to him in Bollywood films and down South too, have been largely of an antagonist. But, his stint in the reality show Bigg Boss-10 changed it all – for the masses and the people in the industry too.
During his recent visit to Lucknow, he told HT City, “I stood on my own during the stay in the Bigg Boss House (63 days) and probably that’s what people liked about me. A lot of people came to me and said ‘ki aap role to itne daravne kartey ho par aap to bahut acche insaan ho (You are a mean person on screen but a really wonderful person in real life)’. That’s a good thing to take home. Otherwise, people don’t know I am a teetotaler and non-smoker!”
His muscular build and deadly roles determined his kind of roles he got, and thus his image too. “Friends and people close to me in the industry know what kind of person I am. But, the general perception is built by the characters we play.
People forget that we are actors and just doing roles. Things changed from there and I became lovable,” he says.
The films offered to him since then (2016-17) have suddenly turned positive. “The roles that are coming my way are very different from those that I did all my life. I did ‘Mukarakaan’ where I played a positive role, of a father who succumbs to his daughter’s love. Even the industry is now looking at me in differently. Also, in the radio show ‘Mahabharat’, I got the role of Bheem, otherwise, I would have got to play Duryodhan. So, the perception of the industry has also changed.” Currently, he is shooting for a Punjabi film, in which too, he has a positive role.
He just returned after shooting for a film in Canada. “That is another film which is very close to my heart. It stars a grey character, who, by the end of the film, becomes positive. But, I can’t talk more about it because of the non-disclosure agreement we have signed,” he said.
Rahul’s next release will be ‘Toorbaaz’, which he shot with Sanjay Dutt and Nargis Fakhri in Kyrgyzstan, and has been directed by Girish Malik. “It’s about Afghanistan, Taliban and suicide bombers. I play an Afghan fighter in the film. It’s a very exciting role,” he said.
Largely, his roles have been that of an antagonist but he has played some positive roles too. “I played martyr Sukhdev in ‘23 March 1931: Shaheed’, a cop in ‘Kyon?’ and ‘88 Antop Hill’. My negative roles overshadow them but then it gives me a creative satisfaction too.”
About his FM radio show ‘Mahabharat’ for Fever 104, he said, “The show has a great line-up of actors. When I was growing up, I had a book Mahabharata by C Rajagopalchari. I read it for years multiple times and the battle descriptions therein used to excite me a lot. Amongst all, I found Bheem to be the most righteous person.”
Rahul talks of his love for mythology. “I am playing the person I like most, but someone l like more than him, is Karan,” he said.