‘Can count on fingers’: Rajkummar Rao’s honest take on good actors in India

In a refreshingly candid interview on ‘The Longest Interview’ podcast on Audible, Rajkummar Rao laid bare his thoughts on the stark contrast between the international film industries and India's own, lamenting that while the foreign industries boasts an abundance of talented actors with only a handful of subpar performers, India's acting pool is woefully lacking, with genuinely skilled actors few and far between. Rao didn't mince words, stating that India's good actors can be counted on the fingertips, whereas the list of bad actors stretches on.

“There are plenty of great actors abroad—you can count the bad ones on your fingers. Everyone is good, some are very good, and then there are the greats,” he says. “Here, you can count the good actors on your fingers because the list of bad ones is much longer,” said Rao, who won a National Film Awards for ‘Shahid.’

The actor also opened up about his personal struggles, sharing stories of being replaced in projects and the emotional highs of manifesting his dream role in Kai Po Che!, offering a rare glimpse into the triumphs and tribulations of a talented artist navigating the cutthroat world of Indian cinema.

Regarded as one of the leading acclaimed actors in the Hindi film industry today, Rao hasn’t had it the easy way. In the past, he has had experiences of being replaced on certain projects. But that has only made him believe that it wasn’t his failure. As he recalled those tough times, he said, “There were a couple of times when everything was going well, but then I was dropped from the film for some reason. That wasn’t my failure; it was theirs for not handling it properly. Those experiences taught me to always be prepared. Looking back, I realise it might have been for the best—either the film never got made, or the character wasn’t impactful. I believe that when the universe is guiding you, everything falls into place.”

Furthemore, he also recalled how he manifested on being a part of Abhishek Kapoor’s ‘Kai Po Che!,’ a film that changed his career trajectory.

“I enjoyed reading The Three Mistakes of My Life by Chetan Bhagat. Before that, one of his other books, One Night at the Call Center, had already been adapted into a film, so I knew he was a writer whose books were getting turned into movies. I still remember, when I was new in Bombay, I read Three Mistakes of My Life and actually manifested it to the universe. There are three characters in the book, and I hoped that if a film was ever made, I would get one of those roles. I didn’t specify which one, but I really wished for it—and then Kai Po Che! happened. It’s surreal but true," he said.

On the work front, Rao is presently basking on the humongous success of his latest release ‘Stree 2.’ The horror-comedy, directed by Amar Kaushik, entered the Rs. 400 crore within 12 days of its release. Backed by Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films, it also features Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Banerjee, and Aparshakti Khuranna.