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Despite the initial setback, Rajkummar credits Anurag for recommending him to Hansal Mehta for Shahid, a turning point in his career.
Rajkummar Rao made his debut in Bollywood with the 2010 film Love Sex Aur Dhokha.
Rajkummar Rao, currently promoting his upcoming film Maalik, has opened up about a defining phase in his acting career. The actor recalled his early association with filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and the cult film Gangs of Wasseypur. In an interview with Pinkvilla, Rajkummar revealed that his role in the film was originally planned to be a parallel lead alongside Nawazuddin Siddiqui, but later got drastically reduced.
“Anurag sir called me for Gangs of Wasseypur. At that time, Wasseypur was supposed to be between me and Nawaz. The story was between these two characters,” Rajkummar recalled. He shared that he and Nawaz even travelled to the real Wasseypur with the film’s writer Zeeshan Qadri to prepare for the role. “Hum log waha rahe kuch time, I was recording people on my voice recorder just to get the accent and to understand the milieu. Bahot maja aaya (We stayed there for some time. I recorded people to understand the dialect. It was a lot of fun).”
However, things took a turn when Rajkummar received a call from Anurag while he was shooting patchwork for Ragini MMS. “He said, ‘Sun, script aa gayi hai but abhi tera role usme kuch bacha nahi hai. To tu dekh kya karna hai. I would love to have you in my film but you decide.’ I said, ‘Sir, mujhe aapke saath kaam karna hai. I don’t know kitna bada role hai but jo bhi hai main karunga (I want to work with you no matter how big or small the role is).’”
While he chose to stay on board, Rajkummar admitted, “Of course thoda bura laga tha… Nobody had money. But that was all fine as long as I’m getting work.”
Despite the initial setback, Rajkummar credits Anurag for recommending him to Hansal Mehta for Shahid, a turning point in his career.
Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, …Read More
Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, … Read More
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