MUMBAI: Rahul Bhatia wears many hats with flamboyance. He is an anchor, actor, dancer, video blogger and entrepreneur. Happy with how things have turned out, Bhatia, who has done his engineering and MBA from Delhi, says he was always inclined towards art.

Giving us a glimpse of how his journey began, he recalls, “In 2005 I joined Shiamak Davar academy and started my career as a background dancer. Sushant Singh Rajput was a part of the same batch and we were close friends. Sushant, Ansh Bagri and I even performed at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony in Australia in 2006. Around that time I also did some modelling assignments with brands like Wills Lifestyle, India Fashion Week, few commercials like Samsung, LG and MacDonald’s etc. I also worked in movies like 3 idiots, Aisha as background dancer.”

Bhatia was doing all these when he was still studying. “I also did a DD national show, worked in reality shows like Kyunki Jeena Isika Naam Hai, IIFA Star Ki Talaash, Dare To Date, Big Switch, Emotional Atyachar, Chat House and Date Trap. Anil Kapoor, Lara Dutta, Koena Mitra and Manish Malhotra, were judges and Karan Johar and Malaika Arora were the host of IIFA Star Ki Talaash where I was a runner-up.  In 2011, after my MBA, I shifted to Mumbai, did quite a few more shows and ads but unfortunately, within a year things stopped moving. So I returned to Delhi and joined my father’s business. Later I worked in Kingdom of Dreams in Delhi and then went on to become an anchor at Homeshop 18, Snapdeal and later became the national head of the countrywide team of anchors at Naaptol,” he adds.

Every part of this journey taught him a lot and made him the evolved individual that he is today. “It was not easy to achieve any of these but I don’t think I would have learnt anything had it been a cakewalk,” he shares.
 
Given his expertise, we ask him about the qualities an anchor requires. “His or her voice, pronunciation, how s/he speaks, words being used, gestures, postures and personality matter. Not just verbal but non -verbal communication is important. Eye contact with the audience, knowing their taste and what they are looking for are also necessary qualities. And an anchor should know how to crack jokes and when,” he says.
 
Bhatia’s favourite anchors are Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan. He has learnt a lot from their shows Kaun Banega Crorepati and Bigg Boss.  Talking about his focus at this point in time, he adds, “Right now I’m an entrepreneur, so I have a few startups which include D7 Events Pvt. Ltd., an event management company named and Realty Assistant Pvt Ltd, a real estate company that I am expanding. We have gone international with Dubai already, now Reality Assistant’s next stop is Canada. Apart from these two star-ups, I have two YouTube Channels. VJrahulbhatia, which is mainly for vlogging and pranks and the other one is Review Bhatia which is a tech channel. I am also thinking of taking up acting projects."