Kanpurite Rakesh Chaturvedi Om started his career as an actor and gradually started writing, which eventually got him into direction. Looking back at his 23-year-old career, the Padman (2018) and Kesari (2019) actor feels both acting and direction “balance his creative sanity”.
He adds, “I’m an actor first as that is my first love, but slowly, I have developed love for writing and direction as well. Now, both are equally important to me. Acting and direction are the balancing factors of my life.”
On how this gradual shift happened, he adds, “When I started acting, I was not getting much work. So, I started assisting and went on to work with Ready (2011) and Dabangg (2010) writer Dilip Shukla. I was closely associated with Motley theatres group and (actor) Naseeruddin Shah suggested I write my own acts. Anurag (Kashyap; filmmaker) also suggested to do the same and that’s how the gradual progression happened towards writing and direction.”
Chaturvedi feels fortunate that he realised his calling. “I started acting with Darpan (theatre group) in 1994 in Kanpur. Then I joined the National School of Drama and shifted to Mumbai in 2000. I consider myself just 23-year-old (career wise) and whatever little I can do is due to the drills I have gone through,” says Chaturvedi.
He turned director with Bolo Ram (2009) with actors Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav, Padmini Kolhapure and Naseeruddin Shah followed by BHK Bhalla @ Halla.Kom (2016). “Then I started working on my yet-to-be-released directorial Mandali, which is inspired by Munshi Premchand’s story Ramleela. We shot it in Mathura, and it’s based on the life of Ramleela actors.”
{{/usCountry}}He turned director with Bolo Ram (2009) with actors Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav, Padmini Kolhapure and Naseeruddin Shah followed by BHK Bhalla @ Halla.Kom (2016). “Then I started working on my yet-to-be-released directorial Mandali, which is inspired by Munshi Premchand’s story Ramleela. We shot it in Mathura, and it’s based on the life of Ramleela actors.”
{{/usCountry}}Two of his next directorial projects are based in his hometown. “I have three projects ready. A situational comedy film and a thriller web series that will be shot in Kanpur and another horror comedy set in Mumbai.”
On the acting front, he has finished shooting for director Ajay Bahl’s The Ladykiller and Nikil Nagesh Bhatt’s Apurva.
Talking about his love for acting, he adds, “I am very proud about playing antagonist in Kesari opposite Akshay (Kumar) sir. Padman and Baba Azmi’s film Mee Raqsam (2020) is also very close to me.”