After many of his films took the OTT route last year, Rajkummar Rao is excited to return to the silver screen with Roohi. Also starring Varun Sharma and Janhvi Kapoor, Roohi will release in theaters on March 11th. Rao plays a village single called Bhawra who falls in love with a spirit-possessed woman. Rao has already been successful with this genre at Stree in 2018 and hopes to get the gold once again.
In a conversation with indianexpress.com, Rao talked about Dinesh Vijan’s horror comedy universe that began with Stree, working with Janhvi Kapoor and the worldwide success of The White Tiger.
Raj shared how he made sure Bhawra and Vicky (Stree) didn’t look alike. “It was fun working on Stree at the time, a horror comedy, first of that kind, and then going back to that world and playing a different character. For me, I wanted to play Bhawra in a way that didn’t remind the audience of Stree’s Vicky. So it was a challenge for me how to make him look and feel different. I had to maintain a different speech pattern, I dyed my hair, my style is very different from Stree’s, ”he shared.
Actor Trapped shared that producer Dinesh Vijan wants to create a horror comedy universe and that with Roohi he starts building on it. Since these films belong to the same universe, it is possible that both Rao characters could appear together in a film one day. Provoking this possibility, the Newton actor said: “Dinesh has a bigger plan to turn it into a universe where you will see Bhawra reunite with Vicky, which would be exciting to see. They can also reunite in the same movie “. However, Raj remained a mother in his likely appearance in Varh Dhawan’s Bhediya, which also seems to be part of Dinesh Vijan’s horror comedy universe.
Roohi also stars Janhvi Kapoor and, like many star children, has also been accused of nepotism since her debut in Dhadak. Speaking of his talented co-star, Rao said: “Janhvi is a very talented actor, we have seen him grow in all the films, from Dhadak to Roohi. She really loves what she does. From the comments we’re making online, I think people want to see talent on screen, the response we get is fantastic, so I don’t see any problem with that. “
With the films being re-released in theaters, the pressure on the box office numbers will surely be back. But Raj believes people “want to invest their money in the right film, want to go and have a good experience.” He added: “If the film is good, people will see it.”
The White Tiger, in which Rao played a key role, has just received two BAFTA 2021 nominations. Speaking of the worldwide success of the Netflix film, the Omerta actor said, “It’s fantastic! We all knew we were doing something special, I was so excited to work on The White Tiger, just to have the opportunity to work with someone like Ramin (Bahrani), I was a big fan of his work. And now, the kind of response he’s received from the global audience is phenomenal, it’s overwhelming
Rajkummar Rao has recently finished Badhai Do with Bhumi Pednekar and also has Hum Do Humare Do on his kitten. Roohi opens in theaters on Thursday, March 11th.