What Makes Rajkummar Rao The Master Of His Game

It’s been 12 years since Rajkummar Rao brought to light an absolutely fresh way of telling stories. The actor talks about remakes and sequels, lead roles and bit roles, and about his most challenging film till date

- Ananya Ghosh

That Rajkummar Rao is one of the most brilliant actors of our times, miles ahead of most of his contemporaries, is a fact not the harshest of his critics can refute. The FTII graduate, who started his Bollywood journey in 2010, has proved his mettle at every opportunity. While his intense powerhouse performances in author-backed roles in Trapped, Omerta, Newton, and Shahid are testimony to his solid grasp over his craft, it is the lighter movies like Bareilly Ki Barfi, Stree, Ludo, and the recently-released Badhaai Do, that show how nuanced an actor this 37-year-old is. In fact, if Rajkummar Rao decides to repeatedly play just one character for the next five years, chances are he would be able to create 50 different shades of it, and even pick up a few awards along the way.

The actor had proved his versatility way back in 2017 when he starred in films as diverse as Trapped, Behen Hogi Teri, Bareilly Ki Barfi, Newton, and Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana, along with his first web series, Bose: Dead/Alive. His performance in each was nothing less than stellar, and it forced one of the leading award shows of the country to create a special category, Impactful Actor of the Year Award, for him to acknowledge his works.

To credit Rao for heralding the age of content-driven cinema would be a stretch, but the movement found a new pair of safe hands in him. He joined the likes of Manoj Bajpayee and Irrfan Khan, and was instrumental in bridging the gap between indie cinema and commercial cinema, replacing the stars with actors. Although Ranbir Kapoor had already done a Rocket Singh by the time Rao entered the industry, actors like Rao helped raise the bar for commercial Bollywood heroes, making them sharpen their acting skills and experiment with content-driven cinema.