Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

The man in many parts

He's an actor, a writer, a rugby player and now a brand ambassador. And Rahul Bose tells BHUMIKA K. not to be surprised if she finds him building roads in Rajasthan some day

GREAT COMBINATION Rahul Bose: `Rugby has taught me to have a hot heart and a cool head' Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

He's a champion. At his game, in his craft and of causes. A maverick actor and writer in Bollywood who's given Indian arthouse cinema a new metaphor. A rugby player and an activist who worked quietly for victims of the tsunami in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. An actor with a razor sharp mind and tongue to match. An unlikely man in an unlikely place.

So when you hear that Rahul Bose is coming to Bangalore as brand ambassador for Titan's Xylys range of watches, you're curious. Rahul has just brought back with him much critical acclaim from the Berlin Film Festival where Budhdhadeb Dasgupta's Kaalpurush — Rahul's first Bengali acting venture — featured in a special panorama.

"It's a very moving film Budhdhadeb has made and I'm proud of the film and my work in it," he says, getting seriously down to business. "The film is in the Satyajit Ray mould, not the kind you will stand up in the end and clap loudly for. It's very gratifying to note that cinema and creativity can cross boundaries. As long as there's a heart."

Turning choosy

Rahul is now really picking his films carefully. He's very conscious of the women in his films and his role in their context. He's almost finished shooting his second Bengali film Anuronon. And the man who hates labels says: "You can't classify films by language, but in terms of films I have chosen in that language, yes. Very arthouse, very world cinema."

He adds: "After White Noise, Chameli and 15 Park Avenue, there was a perception that I was happy playing the elegant prop to very powerful female actresses. Which, at that time I was. Now I don't want to do that. So I carefully chose four films, each of a totally different genre than the other. In all of them I have a central role and I'm carrying the film," he says.

He's also doing something considered freakish by his standards. Pyar Ke Side Effects with Mallika Sherawat! It's a classical romantic comedy, he says. But why do something like that? "Because I've never done one," he says with an incredulous look. "I said I must try this genre once before I die. It's a Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan kind of romantic comedy. Witty, contemporary, clean." This is not a mainstream film, he begins to explain. "My definition of arthouse is a film that's not formulaic. Where you don't know what will happen next. . But this film is not illogical. That has been my major problem." So there's no singing and dancing? "No there's no changing of clothes in the middle of a scene, no singing... nonsense!!" No item number? "No. It's contemporary. Is there an item number?" he thinks hard as he looks at the ceiling. But clearly, what he's really taken up by is Santosh Sivan's English film Kerala. A period film set way back in 1937, it's a story of friendship between a Malayali boy (Bose) and a British tea planter, who wants to build a road that will open the spice route to the village, in the backdrop of the Indian freedom struggle. "The greatest filmic experience of my life is Kerala. No question. What was not special about that film? It's a Hollywood production. But thank God there are still some companies in Hollywood that make sensible cinema. American producers can be a nightmare. They have tremendous control over a film, unlike in India where the director calls the shots. So I dread it, the interference of producers," he says with wide eyes. But these guys were anything but the stereotype.

He's also back after a hiatus of four years when he wrote his first film, the wacky Everybody Says I'm Fine. He wrote The Whisperers, a two-man psychological thriller that Manoj Bajpai and he are carrying together. Classic sleuth death-trap kind of film in English is how he describes it. So is writing the bigger draw? "I hate writing. Make no mistake about it." Then why write? "Because I have to do it. It comes out of your body. It starts embarrassing you in public places, you know... It's like a growth. Writing's the most tiring thing I've done."

Rahul has also been very vocal and passionate over the turn the Jessica Lal murder case has taken. The nation is reacting emotionally, and rightly so, he believes. "This vilification of witnesses is a national shame. When you vilify a witness who's turned hostile, you vilify yourself. Because we as a nation have failed people who have been put in a position of upholding their integrity. This country doesn't make it easy for you to be a faithful witness. There's no witness protection programme. Generally it is regarded that the police can be bought. Under these conditions, how dare you blame anyone for turning hostile? I believe there's nothing more important than upholding the values you stand for. If you don't know which values you stand for, that's pathetic. And if you do, and don't uphold them, that's sad." He continues, passionately: "This is the kind of knee-jerk reaction that bothers me about the chattering classes. I keep seeing SMSs that say ban Shayan Munshi from the modelling world. What's wrong with you? You ban him, you ban yourself. Because next time this happens, you should have the guts to stand up and say, `You can take refuge in my arms.'"

The big teacher

Rahul Bose is also the only actor in the world who straddles both the world of professional rugby and acting. And he's breathless about his game, which he considers a way of life in itself: "It's the single biggest teacher of my life. It's taught me more than my parents; taught me humility and to be a team player. Essentially I'm a loner. It's taught me how to lose. It's taught me to have a hot heart and a cool head. It's a great combination." This year he will play in Germany, Belgium, India and then in England. "And that's if I make it to the Indian team again this year!"

At 39, Rahul has led quite a life. He was creative director at ad agency Rediffusion at 26. He quit to act. He's won accolades for his acting and direction. He's the king of international film circuits; Indians in the U.N. even organised a retrospective of his films recently!

Does he fear a burnout?

"I don't fear a burnout. I'll do something else then. I'll build a road in Rajasthan or something. I don't know. What's the fear? The fear that the fame will go? Sometimes it's like, `Uh... I wish the fame didn't go. I wish the popularity and the smiles... ' But you realise after those two minutes of weak thinking that the ones who love you will always love you. "

IMAGE MATCH Rahul Bose: `I have nothing against doing brand endorsements, except that the fit should be right'

Taking a creative dig

There are actors who simply become brand ambassadors. And then there are actors who chose what they want to endorse. Rahul Bose's streak in the ad world as creative director shows up as he analyses why he chose to endorse Xylys: "I have nothing against doing brand endorsements, except that the fit should be right. It should not be that the brand benefits and you don't benefit at all. Nike and Michael Jordan is the best brand ambassador partnership I've seen. Air Jordan didn't exist till Nike came there. They mythicised and deified Jordan. I'm proud I haven't said yes to anyone else."

He gives his reasons for his choice: tremendous respect for the Tata group with a tradition of integrity, nation building and social philanthropy. "Even advertising in India is getting edgier. Then the creative execution. They are not asking me to dance the bhangra. How many celebrities have you seen making an ass of themselves trying to be witty or warm. That's not your image dude, what're you doing? I'm playing rugby in the commercials. And finally the brand proposition — the power of X — the only person's rules I follow are mine. I've always done that."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail