They say that Mumbai is the city of dreams but where would it be without its dreamers? Rajkummar Rao came to this sprawling metropolis from Prem Nagar in Haryana. His father was a government employee and his mother a homemaker. He didn't know a soul in the film industry. No friends, no godfathers, no one. But he didn't lose heart. Because what he had with him were his dreams. And they were enough for him to set foot in an unchartered territory.
For all those who scream nepotism, when they hear Bollywood, let this be an eye opener. Here was an outsider. all he had going for him was his dreams and oodles of talent. And lo! He's one of the most bankable actors in the country today. Yes talent can take you a long way. but it's your support system, your family that adds fuel to your fire. For Rajkummar, his mother was his world. She believed in him.
In an exclusive interview with the editor of Filmfare Jitesh Pillaai, he tells us that his mom was his confidante. Every time he won a Filmfare Award or a National Award, he'd call her up. and she'd tell him that greater things were in store for him. He gets emotional talking about his mom, whom he lost in 2017. He didn't even have enough time to mourn her. He'd to return to shoot Newton within a day. That's what his mother would have wanted, he says. “Be honest with your work and work hard,” his mother used to tell him. “She was such a fighter and I have such huge respect for women all over the world,” he adds.
He also reminisces about his childhood days. And reveals that those early days weren't easy. He was in class 8 when he turned a dance teacher. He earned Rs 300 a month and he used that money to buy groceries for the family.
He may have had a tough childhood but he has only happy memories about it. That's because he says his family was close knit. He has four brothers and two sisters and they are still very close. “We have a WhatsApp group and we still share all the good things and the bad things, whatever it is. Most of the times, we crack some stupid jokes and sometimes, if someone has read some spiritual thing, they share that too. And if we have to connect about some common event or something, we connect on that WhatsApp group, ” he says.
He then narrates a hilarious instance about his family. His first film LSD had released. He had warned his mother about the almost-nude scene in the movie. When the entire family - some 13 of them - went to watch the movie, they had no idea how to react when the scene came up. Rajkummar laughs as he recalls his brother telling him how awkward everyone was and how they were just sitting there silently, waiting for the scene to end.
One of Rajkummar’s primary successes has been his ability to form strong, close relationships. He’s still connected to his FTII classmates on WhatsApp - Jaideep Ahlawat, Vijay Verma, Sunny Hinduja and Divyenndu are his friends from FTII.
WhatsApp presents Just Between Us by Filmfare, is a series of chats where the stars pour their soul out to Jitesh Pillaai, the editor of Filmfare about the trials and the tribulations they've gone through in their bid to make it at the movies. In this episode, Rajkummar Rao shares details of his childhood, insecurities, private moments of failure and victory and much more... Watch now.
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