I am original and I can't copy: Rajesh Khera

Rajesh Khera is one underrated actor in the television industry. There are some actors who have come and gone, there are some who never managed to carve a niche in the mind of the audience and there are some who have been a part of impactful roles and yet they could not get their due. Call it luck or just bad timing; Rajesh Khera is yet to achieve what he deserves.

Khera will be seen portraying the role of Jawahar Lal Nehru in the upcoming film Raag Desh. The trailer of the film was launched in the Indian Parliament making it one of a kind. Written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia, the cast of the film includes Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh and Mohit Marwah. The film is about the famous Red fort trails which changed the course of India’s Azaadi movement.

In a heart of hearts conversation with Tellychakkar, Rajesh spoke at length about the film, his characters and a lot more. Excerpts from the interview:

How was it working with Tigmanshu Dhulia?

I worked with him before as well however, this time it was a real character that I was portraying. There was not much footage available for Nehru. There is a lot of audio though, in terms of his speeches but again, there is no one to one dialogue, you do not know how he speaks when he speaks to another person. We did not literally ape his style of delivery. Having said that, I have tried to incorporate certain gestures of him, and approached the character with integrity. Tigmanshu corrected my walk which was very lose, certain gestures like how he places his fingers on his face so on and so forth. It is Rajesh Khera’s take on Nehru. It was not on the lines of Ben Kingsley aping Gandhi.  Without Tigmanshu’s help it would have been difficult, he is after all the captain of the ship. The film is going to be shown on the Rajya Sabha channel as a TV series. That is why a lot has been shot out of which the most potent two and a half hours have been extracted for the film. There are a lot of speeches which are not part of the film but will be there in the TV series

What were the nuances that you had work upon to get Nehru right? Was it difficult?

I was keeping Mr. Roshan Seth in mind. After seeing Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi everyone knows Roshan Seth as Nehru, he did a swell job. He had an author backed role; there was a lot for him to do. When you have fewer scenes, it is difficult to make a graph. If there are a lot of scenes a character graph can be drawn. I have around six to seven scenes in the film.

Did that make your job difficult? After all you have to make the character believable in whatever screen time you are allotted.

Yes, that made it very difficult. I remembered the time when I worked with Mr Anupam Kher, he once said “Rajesh you just have three scenes you don’t have the whole film. Make a history of your character. Your name is Rehman Pirate, you have to figure out what he thinks, what he eats, you have to cull out a graph and then approach the scene.”  

Nehru is a real character, we cannot deviate. We have to honestly communicate that by incorporating certain gestures of him without aping him completely. It is actually very difficult to do a cameo for such a role. That is because you have to do justice to his character without aping his delivery and voice. More than anything else, I am original I can’t copy!

What was the camaraderie like with the other guys in the film?

I was the star; I was Nehru so I was given that special treatment. Wherever the scenes pertained to the congress, I was the boss because I was playing Nehru. It was awesome. Before anything else was in place, the director wanted me to be there.  I was enjoying the attention. Tigmanshu was very kicked about me being Nehru because, when we auditioned, he was apprehensive but once the look test was done, he said “Mera Nehru Mil Gaya.” It was fun. I had scenes with all the three boys; however most of my scenes were with Amit Sadh. Mine was a prominent character.  

We would be seeing you on the silver screen after a long time… A hiatus of almost 3 years, What took you so long? No scripts or no good meaty roles?

My last film was Hate Story 2 but that was a cameo as well. The main reason for the delay is the sheer proliferation in the number of actors and directors in the industry. The casting directors get puzzled and they don’t know whom to approach. Which is why, they set a benchmark. For instance, they want someone like Vijay Razz or a Sanjay Mishra. It all boils down to PR and keeping touch. I feel the best person to do the PR is the actor himself. Either you have already become a huge name in the industry with some agency adopting you and they do the needful because it is in their interest that their actor does well. It’s an exercise that I am surely not interested in. Somewhere, I have become complacent. If it has to happen it will happen, otherwise, I am happy with what I have. Casting directors have their own camps and sadly I haven’t been able to break into any of these camps maybe because of my poor skills.

You have worked in serious roles earlier, in the middle you meandered towards playing funky ones… How was it playing something so character driven as this one?

During my initial days as an actor, I shared my pictures confidently and spoke to people with aplomb. Thankfully, no one asked me what you have done so worthy that you are calling yourself an actor- perhaps then; I would not have an answer. I started learning on the job. I did Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, it was appreciated after which Hu Tu Tu happened. This was also when I was doing other TV serials. The film was being helmed by Gulzar saab. It happened to me after I did a documentary with his daughter Meghna, when he saw the documentary; he wanted to use me for Hu Tu Tu.

Reminiscing more about the maestro, Khera further revealed “Gulzar saab has the habit of keeping chocolates in his pocket and if he is happy with a particular shot he gives a chocolate as a token of appreciation. I received my first chocolate (éclairs) for that role from Mr Gulzar. He said, “Thank You and this is for you.” I didn’t quite understand the meaning of that gesture back then; it was later when someone told me that he had given me the toffee because I had excelled in the shot. To me it meant more than all the awards combined.

Realising he strayed a little bit from the topic in hand, he made a quick comeback stating, “I wouldn’t be modest, I will say that I am a fabulous actor and I make sure that I pull off whatever I get in a wonderful manner. I am a complete actor and that’s the way I would want to be remembered. I have done Uttaran, played ‘Maddy’ in Jassi Jaisi, I received an award for my portrayal of Major Bhargav in Left Right Left. I believe that if I do something, it has to be good otherwise it is always better to quit.