I am not even closer to Naseeruddin Shah says Rajkummar Rao
Actor Rajkummar Rao’s recently released film Newton has been declared as India’s official entry at the Oscars and celebrating the good news Rajkummar interacted with media before going to promote his film at the Oscars on Saturday in Mumbai. While interacting with media, Rajkummar stated that he is not even closer to Naseeruddin Shah.
Rajkummar Rao and Naseeruddin Shah are considered as giants of alternative and content driven cinema in India and people are referring Rajkummar as new age Naseeruddin Shah, reacting to that comparison, Rajkummar said, “It’s a great compliment. Though I am not even closer to Naseeruddin Shah. We have only one Naseeruddin Shah. I love Nasir sir. We all learned so much from him. He is my senior from FTII, Pune as well. So I am grateful and it’s overwhelming when people take your name alongside legend like him”.
Year 2017 has been one best year in Rajkummar’s career in which his each role was highly appreciated by the audience, talking about year 2017, Rao said, “It’s very exciting year for me and probably one of the most important year of my career. This year, I worked different kind of films, playing different characters and most of them were praised by the audience so I am very happy with this year and I hope each year of mine can become like 2017 in my life”
Newton became first film to receive grant of one crore from the India, talking about Government support, Rajkummar said, “It’s really good thing that we are getting support from Indian government as well. It is really important because I feel when you go out there to present and promote your movie at the Oscars, it takes lots of efforts and in that it requires money as well so if government is taking care of that aspect then it’s really good. Government officials are constantly in touch with us and they have shown their full support to us”
When asked Rao what is Newton’s chances to do well at the Oscars, he said, “We have lots of expectations because this film has global connect and appeal. That was the reason it received awards in prestigious film festivals like Berlin and Hong Kong. I feel each country is struggling in corruption and flaws in their internal system so everyone is relating with what we shown in this film so we are really hopeful that it will be appreciated there as well”
Talking about change in Indian cinema in terms of different and real kind of storytelling, Rao said, “We are discussing from longer period of time that cinema is changing but this year has witnessed that cinema is finally changing. Content has finally become the king. People want to see good stories and they want to see actors playing characters rather than playing themselves onscreen and Newton is great example of that. The kind of collection we had on day one and now there is so much of demand that more people want to see this movie so it’s a welcome change”.
Newton is directed by Amit V Masurkar and it starred Rajkummar Rao, Sanjay Mishra, Pankaj Tripathi, Anjali Patil in lead roles.
