After many of his films have followed the OTT route over the past year, Rajkummar Rao is excited to be on the silver screen with Roohi again. Roohi, who also stars Varun Sharma and Janhvi Kapoor, will be released in theaters on March 11. Here, Rao plays a village simpleton named Bhawra who falls in love with a woman possessed by a ghost. Rao achieved success with this genre earlier in the 2018 Stree and hopes to win gold once again.
In an interview with indianexpress.com, Rao spoke about Dinesh Vijan’s horror-comedy universe that began with Stree, alongside Janhvi Kapoor and the worldwide success of The White Tiger.
Raj recounted how he made sure Bhawra and Vicky (Stree) did not look the same. ‘It was fun at the time to work on Stree, a horror comedy, first of its kind, and then to return to the world and play a different character. For me, I wanted to play Bhawra in a way that did not remind the audience of Vicky van Stree. Therefore, it was a challenge for me to make it look and feel different. I had to keep a different speech pattern, I dyed my hair, my style is very different from Stree’s, he shared.
The Trapped actor said producer Dinesh Vijan wants to create a horror-comedy universe and with Roohi he starts building on the same. Since these films belong to the same universe, it is possible that Rao’s characters may one day appear together in a movie. The Newton actor teased the possibility, ‘Dinesh has a bigger plan to make it into a universe where Bhawra will meet Vicky, which will be exciting to watch. They may also reunite in the same film. However, Raj remained a mother about his likely appearance in Varhed Dhawan’s Bhediya, which apparently also forms part of Dinesh Vijan’s horror comedy universe.
Roohi also stars Janhvi Kapoor, and like many star children, she has faced accusations of nepotism since her debut in Dhadak. Rao said of his talented co-star: ‘Janhvi is a very talented actor. We saw her grow in every movie, from Dhadak to Roohi. She really likes what she does. From the comments we get online, I think people want to see talent on screen. The response we get is amazing, so I see no problem there. ”
As the films re-emerge in theaters, the pressure of box office numbers is likely to return. But Raj believes that people “want to invest their money in the right movie and have a good experience.” He added, “if the film is good, people will go and watch it.”
The White Tiger, in which Rao played a key role, has just received two nominations at BAFTA 2021. The Omerta actor commented on the worldwide success of the Netflix movie: ‘It’s amazing! We all knew we were making something special, I was very excited to work on The White Tiger, just to get an opportunity to work with someone like Ramin (Bahrani), I was a huge fan of his work . And now, the kind of response it has received from the global audience is phenomenal, it’s overwhelming
Rajkummar Rao recently concluded Badhaai Do with Bhumi Pednekar and also has Hum Do Humare Do in his cat. Roohi will appear in theaters on Thursday, March 11th.