March 26, 2017
Rajkummar Rao loves all the attention he is getting, and says he is
overwhelmed with his increasing number of female fans.
"I like
attention. I like female attention as well. It is very overwhelming. I have seen
that there is growth in the amount of people who used to like me and it has gone
up thanks to the whole of last year," Rajkummar told IANS in an interview.
"It is very encouraging also in a way... People like me, they are
appreciating my work and the kind of films that I am doing," he added.
He
entered filmdom with an interesting role in 2010 with "Love Sex Aur Dhokha" and
went on cement his position in the industry with back-to-back powerful
performances in films like "Kai Po Che!", "Shahid", "Aligarh", "CityLights",
"Bareilly Ki Barfi" and "Newton".
For Rajkummar, it is very important to
reinvent with each project.
"Otherwise it gets boring. Once you find your
comfort zone and you keep working in that comfort zone, after a while it gets
very boring. You have to keep evolving and keep growing. And growth only happens
when you push yourself," he said.
Last year in particular was good for
Rajkummar as his film "Newton" became India's official entry for the Oscars --
though it could not make it to the final list.
So, does this validation
add any pressure while picking projects?
"The offers are more or else
same what it was earlier. My process hasn't changed. I was being very selective
even when I just started out with ‘LSD' and ‘Ragini MMS'. I always tend to
choose some unconventional things in life," he said.
The unconventional
aspect stands true for his forthcoming project "Omerta" too. He will be seen
bringing the life of a dreaded terrorist alive on the big screen with the Hansal
Mehta directorial.
It is based on British-Pakistani terrorist Omar Saeed
Sheikh's life. Presented by Swiss Entertainment and Karma Media, and produced by
Nahid Khan, the film is releasing on April 20.
"I love taking risks. That
is what I do as an actor. I love challenges. I want to push myself as an actor
with every film and whenever it is possible I try to do that with all my
characters. ‘Omerta' offered me something very unique, something which I have
never done earlier in my life.
"It is a story of an evil mind and I
wanted to explore that evil genre," he said.
Getting into the psyche of a
terrorist was not easy.
"He is somebody I don't connect with. I have no
idea about his world. But I have to do it. It is my responsibility as an actor
to do it. I started by reading a lot of books on terrorism, different groups and
how they function," he said, adding that he is not afraid to take risks due to
the fear of failures.