After many of his films followed the OTT route in the last year, Rajkummar Rao is delighted to return to the golden screen with Roohi. Also, with Varun Sharma and Janhvi Kapoor, Roohi will be released in theaters on March 11. Here, Rao plays the role of a simple village named Bhawra, who falls in love with a woman possessed by a spirit. Rao was earlier successful with this genre in the 2018 Stree and hopes to bring 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 global success of the White Tiger.
Raj recounted how he made sure that Bhawra and Vicky (Stree) did not look alike. “It was funny to work on Stree back then, a horror comedy, first of this kind, and then to go back to that world and play another character. For me, I wanted to play Bhawra in a way that didn’t remind the audience of Vicky from Stree. That’s why it was a challenge for me how to make them look and feel different. I had to keep a different speech pattern, I colored my hair, my style is very different from Stree “, he said.
Actor Trapped said that producer Dinesh Vijan wants to create a horror comedy universe and, together with Roohi, starts building on the same thing. Because these movies belong to the same universe, it is possible that both of Rao’s characters may appear together in a movie one day. Teasing this possibility, actor Newton said: “Dinesh has a bigger plan to turn this into a universe where you will see Bhawra meeting Vicky, which would be interesting to see. They may also return together in the same movie. However, Raj remained the mother of his probable appearance in Bhediya in Varun Dhawan, which also seems to be part of Dinesh Vijan’s horror comedy universe.
Roohi also plays Janhvi Kapoor and, like many child stars, she has been accused of nepotism since her debut in Dhadak. Speaking about his talented co-star, Rao said: “Janhvi is a very talented actor, I have seen her grow in every film, from Dhadak to Roohi. He really likes what he does. From the comments we get online, I think people want to see the talent on the screen, the response we get is great, so I don’t see a problem there. ”
With the release of movies in theaters again, the pressure of box office numbers will be back. But Raj believes that people “want to invest their money in the right movie, they want to go and have a good experience.” He added: “If the film is good, people will go and see it.”
The white tiger, where Rao played a key role, just received two BAFTA nominations in 2021. Speaking of the overall success of Netflix, actor Omerta said, “It’s great! We all knew we were doing something special, I was very excited to work at 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 has received from the global public 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 be released in theaters on Thursday, March 11.