‘I never wanted to become a comedian’

Actor Rajpal Yadav opens up about film choices and working in Hollywood

MUMBAI: Actor Rajpal Yadav has always been considered a comedian despite playing serious roles in films, such as Darna Mana Hai, Darna Zaroori Hai and Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon. And he isn’t too pleased with the tag.

At the trailer launch of his upcoming film Thoda lutf thoda ishq, Rajpal told reporters: “This fight about a comedian has been going on since 10 years. I never wanted to become a comedian and I’m not a comedian either. And I don’t want any tag of a comedian. “He considers himself merely a “student of acting”



“During the acting journey, whatever characters we receive, I enjoy essaying the mentality of these characters. My basic focus is to entertain viewers. And I’ve never believed in categorising actors such as comedian and others,” he said.

He also feels privileged to do theatre for almost 15 years, acting in almost 500 plays.

“I seek pleasure in my roles. I accept roles that give me pleasure and refuse the ones that don’t,” he said.

Rajpal will be seen with Hiten Tejwani in his upcoming film, which releases on July 10, and also stars Neha Pawar, Sanjay Mishra, Rakesh Bedi and Bhavita Anand.

Rajpal, who was last seen sharing screen space with Hollywood actors, such as Martin Sheen and Mischa Barton in Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain, says that he is going to play lead roles in two of his international projects. “I’ll be featuring in two Hollywood projects in a lead role,” Rajpal told reporters at a promotional event.

Bhopal — A Prayer For Rain is based on true events of 1984 when a toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide Corporation’s pesticide plant in the Madhya Pradesh capital killed and maimed thousands of people.



Back home, Rajpal is known for his roles in films, such as  Mere Baap Pehle Aap , Bhool Bhulaiyan , Main Meri Patni Aur Woh and he is gearing up for more Bollywood releases.

“And I’m also doing 10-12 films in Bollywood also in lead roles. So in all, there are about 17-18 films that I’ll be doing in the next two-three years with utmost sincerity,” he said, adding that his film Kick 2 in Telugu is also in the pipeline.

“I also did a film Amma in Hindi and Kannada and I’m also planning to do another Tamil film,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th,  2015.

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