Rajesh Kumar’s roles have always been steeped in comedy. He played a sulky-naïve momma's boy and now is seen as the religious Bhagwan Das in Neeli Chatri Waale. He tells Sonali Arora that his new character has more depth and will give out a brilliant social message
Many might not even know his real name but Rajesh Kumar won hundreds of hearts as the naive, ‘momma’s boy’ Roshesh in the popular television show Sarabhai vs Sarabhai. In a career spanning over a decade, he has created some iconic characters but he feels that the character of Bhagwan Das Choubey in his ongoing show Neeli Chatri Waale on Zee TV is his best so far.
Kumar has a penchant for comedy shows which are not only replete with hilarious elements but also give out some meaningful message. “They are not always social because that would otherwise overshadow the purpose of a comedy show,” he added, “I don’t want to venture into playing serious roles because comic and light roles are what I am known for. I tend to play characters that have some sort of substance that go beyond the comic appeal. I like playing roles that have depth and evolve over time.”
His character of Bhagwan Das is one with an idiosyncratic appeal. Kumar portrays a middle aged, confused and naïve man who is ridiculed by his wife for being an underwear salesman. He faces the dilemmas and complexities of everyday life with the help of Shivay, a human avatar of lord Shiva, whom only he can see. But somehow the situations always go haywire and he lands himself in trouble. “Bhagwan Das is the kind of character I always wanted to play because the situations he faces have an everyday life context that the audience can easily relate to. He is not trying to act funny but he is just dealing with the routine situations in the best way he can. If he slips over a banana peel, people will have a good laugh out of it but for Das, it will be an embarrassing situation that he would have to deal with,” divulged Kumar.
A Delhi University student, Kumar, initially had no inkling about his immense talent and consequently never groomed his latent skills by applying to an acting school. But surprisingly he has survived well in the industry for more than ten years. “I have learnt everything I know through life experiences. It was right after I graduated from college that I got scouted by a theatre director in Mumbai. After associating myself with the fringe elements of theatre for a few years, I joined Doordarshan. The experience with DD has been the ultimate force that has preened my acting skills,” said Kumar.
The actor recently bagged the role of Bhagwan Das in the wake of Yashpal Sharma leaving the show. He explained, “For me it was a brand new role and not a legacy that I had to carry forward. I connect with the character in a different way than Yashpal ji. An actor usually moulds a role with a touch of his own personality. More than it being a challenge for me I think my co actors had a hard time because they faced a situation where they suddenly had to build up chemistry with an entirely new actor.”
When the possibility of a second season of Sarabhai vs Sarabhai was touched upon, a sad shadow took over his otherwise cheerful demeanor, “The producers, scriptwriters and actors — everybody is ready but somehow the researchers feel that since it has been a decade, we all have decayed and the audience is not going to respond in the same way,” rued Kumar.
He believes in living in the present, “I live like there’s no tomorrow. Do you remember what you were doing exactly at this time a week agoIJ I don’t bother over what is going to happen tomorrow when I have the present moment to live for.”