Mr. Path Less Trodden

Since his debut in 2010, Rajkummar Rao has carefully maintained an “intelligent actor” persona, appearing in projects that have won him public accolades and critical acclaim. 2017 might just be his best year yet.

- Arnesh Ghose

When Rajkummar Rao debuted in 2010 with Dibakar Banerjee’s Love Sex aur Dhokha, I am sure the industry gurus didn’t take him seriously. Banerjee’s LSD was a polarising film — you either loved it, like I did, or hated it — and in the triptych, it would have been easy to forget Rao, only because of the film’s shocking and uncomfortable format. He followed that up with Ragini MMS, a smart film that balanced horror and horny in equal measure, making it quite an interesting watch. People took notice of Rao and appreciated his work, but they soon moved on.

It is understandable why Rao was not taken seriously in an industry given to celeb worship — it’s because he is not celeb material. He is Average Joe looking and, like very few Indian actors, can actually play characters from any part of this country. For an actor, that is a powerful quality to have. Unfortunately, that is a quality Bollywood is not obsessed with, because versatility is not a requirement for this industry.

He did bit roles after that, in big films like Gangs of Wasseypur-2 and Talaash, and while they might not have been memorable, he was noticed. Finally, it was Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che!