It’s always a joy meeting Rajkummar Rao, who has remained the same grounded, honest and humble man I first met before his debut film Love Sex Aur Dhokha. It’s been 13 years, many praiseworthy acts and a National Award since, besides many more trophies, and Raj has not only remained consistent but has delivered something even more special with every new project.

This time, ahead of the release of his debut web series Guns & Gulaabs (that streams on Netflix from August 18), t2 put in a trip to the capital to catch up with Raj at The Oberoi, New Delhi on the day of the trailer launch of the Raj & DK-directed series that also stars Dulquer Salmaan, Gulshan Devaiah and Adarsh Gourav.

Does it feel like coming home every time you are in Delhi?

Absolutely! I get very excited when my schedule has a Delhi trip on it. I have spent so much time here doing theatre and college... my mamaji is from Delhi. My entire childhood has been spent in Delhi. I have a lot of friends here.

What do you miss the most about Delhi?

I like the winters in Delhi. And, of course, I love the food. The wide, open roads are beautiful... I love the Mandi House area as well as South Delhi. It’s also very green...

Tipu in Guns & Gulaabs is a riot, a man of many shades and layers. He is a lovelorn lover and also a killer with a spanner as his weapon. What made you want to play him?

His life is so unexpected in so many ways and that is what all of us face as well. There are events in our lives where things can go south anytime and on any day.

Tipu, as you rightly said, is, at his core, a lover boy (smiles). He has a very small and practical dream... he wants to marry the girl that he loves and he wants to have a family. But then, things change and he ends up becoming a gangster. He doesn’t want to be one, but he is left with no choice. You see it in the trailer... unwittingly he kills two people with a paana (spanner).

For me, the main reason to do Guns & Gulaabs was the story and also because it’s Raj & DK. They are dear friends and I have always believed that they are the most talented film-makers in the country. They are so quirky, their thinking is so unconventional, and they always think out of the box... you can’t predict which way their stories will go. They break all conventions, and I totally love that about them.

I have been a fan of their work since the short film they made called Shor, and before that, they made a film called Flavours. We worked together on Stree (Raj & DK co-produced the film and wrote the screenplay). Stree has been one of the biggest successes of my career, and that’s because of its uniqueness. Go Goa Gone, The Family Man... these guys are different and I would always want to work with them.

They are true mavericks...

They are! But they carry that spirit of knowing they are so talented and so unconventional very easily... it’s not any kind of baggage for them. They are the closest friends I have in the industry and we talk a lot about stories, about other films... they see things from a very different angle from others. When I read a script, I invariably wish that Raj & DK were involved. Hopefully, we will be working together more now.

Over the last few years, there have been a number of stories set in the heartland of India. What makes Guns & Gulaabs different?

Because Raj & DK are making it, it is anyway going to be different. One unique thing about it is that it is set in the ‘90s and not in contemporary times as many other shows with similar setups are. And the genre is mostly drama, a lot of gangster-driven violence or a true story...

What’s great with Raj & DK, especially in Guns & Gulaabs, is how they combine genres. There is crime but also comedy... there is horror with comedy. This show has romance, comedy, thrill, drama, action... it’s a funny crime comedy (smiles).

There is a lot of retro music, both Hindi and English, used in the show. Did that make you nostalgic since most of us have grown up in the ‘90s?

It did! While growing up in Gurgaon, my go-to music was always Bollywood... Anu Malik, Nadeem-Shravan, Laxmikant-Pyarelal (smiles). But, of course, I knew who Bryan Adams was and like everyone else, I had heard his popular songs.

Yes, you are right that it is very nostalgic. For those who have watched Guns & Gulaabs already, that’s what they all talk about. That it rekindles so many memories of that era. Life was so much more peaceful than it is now.

Your character Tipu attempts to woo his woman through love letters. Did you have those experiences in school or college?

Oh ya! I am a big fan of letter-writing. I think there is so much romance in it. It has something special which can’t translate into emails or texts. That’s because it’s so personal... someone has made an effort, has taken time out, and poured their feelings onto paper.... I love that kind of romance.

Did playing Tipu help you tap into a new facet of yourself as an actor?

In a way, yes. When I was reading the script, I kept wondering how to make him different from what I had done earlier. It was actually all there in the script, but I couldn’t focus on it earlier. Tipu, as I said, is so unexpected. At one point, he’s joking and laughing and at the next, you find him crying about the same thing!

That’s what I tapped into. His unpredictable and extreme emotions and reactions. Tipu can be really nice to you and at the next moment, he may just kill you! That’s the thread I held on to and improvised on in many, many scenes.

Safe to say you don’t see anything of yourself in Tipu!

Not really! (Laughs) The only time I have seen myself in my characters has been in Newton and to some extent, Shahid.

Having done so many different kinds of roles in the last 13 years, is there a particular kind of character you are now looking to play?

I like to do parts that break norms. Even if a familiar subject is treated differently in a script, I get excited. There have been so many films about the LGBTQIA+ community, but the way Badhaai Do spoke about the issue was so unique. The number of messages I got from viewers for Badhaai Do... I had never got that many for a film before. Same with Guns & Gulaabs... it’s so different from the other gangster stuff we have seen so far.

(William) Shakespeare has said that there are only about seven stories in the world and we just make them, break them, fuse them, separate them and make new stories. I have just done a film called SRI (the biopic of Indian industrialist Srikanth Bolla) and it’s been so challenging. I play a visually-impaired person... it scared me... and that’s what gave me the kick to do it.

Your Instagram is full of pictures of you with various kinds of awards for acting. Are awards a huge validation for you?

I love awards... I always have! It’s a great motivator and shows me I am on the right path. Not all the awards, of course, motivate me, but when one sees deserving people getting awarded, and I am not just talking about myself, it does give me a boost, it keeps pushing me.

Do you miss the anonymity you had 15 years ago or is fame too much of an addiction to let go of?

I am still a very, very private person. When we were growing up, we would get one or two magazines a month and that was our source to know which star or actor went where or which film premiere took place. Now, I really miss that mystery about actors. There is just too much exposure now. I know everything about an actor’s life, which, somewhere, will impact negatively in the long run. The most amazing part about actors two decades ago was the fact that we knew so little about them. Now it’s all out in the open.
I try to keep away. I don’t post that much on social media. The Instagram world is not the real world. The number of followers you have doesn’t translate into box office for your film. If it did, then given that most actors have millions of followers, every film would be a blockbuster!

Priyanka Roy
My Top 3 Rajkummar Rao performances are... Tell t2@abp.in