Rajkummar: Came to city with no background or backbone

Rajkummar Rao has time and again proved that he is one of the best actors in Hindi cinema. Be it his performance as the strong-willed lawyer in Shahid, a dreaded terrorist in Omerta, a gullible boy in Stree or the naive Pritam in Bareilly Ki Barfi, the actor has raised his bar with every new role.

"The journey has been pretty overwhelming. I never expected this to happen. I always wanted to work of course and that's why I invested so much time on training and came to the city with no background or backbone, and with very little money. From there to here it is still like a dream to me, but I don't sit back and think about it," Rajkummar told IANS.

The actor likes to live in the moment. "I live each day as it comes so I just enjoy each and every moment. I love acting and playing different characters on screen and as long as that is happening I am more than happy," he added.

How does he manage to up his own game each time with his performance? "I really don't know. I just love what I do and I want to take risks. I try to do something different from what I have done earlier," he replied. The 36-year-old actor currently awaits the release of his next film Roohi, a horror comedy. The film co-stars Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Sharma.

Roohi follows his 2018 hit Stree, which seems to have started a gamut of horror comedies in Bollywood, including "Atithi Bhooto Bhava", "Phone Bhoot", "Bhoot Police" and "Bhool Bhulaiya 2", with "Laxmii" having already released last year.

"I hope all these films do well at the box-office.

The point is to take Indian cinema to the next level and raise the standard of our cinema, which is already on the way up. We are making way more good content now, so I just hope all these films are amazing and do well," Rajkummar told IANS.

Roohi is slated to hit the big screen on March 11. With the sudden rise in Covid cases, is he concerned about audience turnout up at the theatres?

"No, not really. I think the kind of precautions the theatres are taking you will feel pretty safe going there... We anyway see people going out, of course people are being careful but that is the same thing.

You have to be a little careful while you go watch a film but the experience of watching a film on the big screen in a dark theatre is something else. That you cannot recreate anywhere else," he replied.