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Wild card: How Raghav Juyal risks it all and still wins big
Goofy prankster. Lovable host. Cold-blooded killer. Raghav Juyal shapeshifts easily. Behind every switch has been a wild risk. Is living on the edge his vibe?
In life, there’s the safe road, and there’s whatever journey Raghav Juyal is on. The actor, 33, has spent more than a decade in the spotlight – first as a dance contestant, then choreographer and show host and now, with roles on the big screen. And at every stage, people have known him to be a wild child. Talented, yes. Trustworthy, also yes. But surprisingly unconcerned about rules, hierarchy and the establishment.
Here’s a story he’ll happily tell. About a decade ago, Juyal was a giddy second lead on the set of ABCD 2. Every day, at the end of filming, director Remo D’Souza would sign off by announcing, “Ganpati Bappa Morya”. The cast and crew quickly took it as their cue to leave too. One day, Juyal, randomly took over the chant, right in the middle of the workday. The cast and crew scattered excitedly in all directions, echoing his words as D’Souza, furious, tried to call everyone back. “It did get out of control,” the actor says, still unrepentant.
Somehow, Juyal always lands on his feet. He played a villain in last year’s Yudhra, starring Siddhant Chaturvedi. He has projects lined up all the way into 2026, including the rumoured Aryan Khan directed-web series The Ba***ds of Bollywood, about the struggles of being an outsider in cinema. He’s alsoreported to beshooting for the action thrillers King (starring Shah Rukh Khan) and The Paradise (alongside Telugu actor Nani).
How does the “risk first, plan later” attitude work exactly? Is Juyal good at calculated risks or is he just listening to his gut more than we do? He’s trying to make sense of it all himself, he says.
Runner’s high
Even his first brush with the spotlight is filmi. Juyal was in Class 12, in 2012, and supposed to be preparing for his board exams in Dehradun. Instead, he was itching to be in Mumbai, at the auditions for the reality show Dance India Dance.
He knew what was at stake. He was the oldest son. His family expected him to join the armed forces. They got into a huge fight. “They almost convinced me that skipping my exams would ruin my career. I remember going up to my room,” he recalls. Then, in a Bollywood twist, he remembered a line of dialogue from the 2007 film, Jab We Met. It’s the point at which Geet was re-considering marrying Anshuman: “Ek ajeeb sa darr lag raha tha... bechaini si, jaise kuch galat ho raha hain, jaise koi train chut rahi hain.” (I felt fearful and restless, a foreboding, as if I was going to miss my train.”)
So Juyal escaped into the night and boarded the first Mumbai-bound train. He made it to the audition, and danced his heart out, but didn’t make it to the show. Still, the risk paid off. “My audition video went viral on YouTube, and Mithun Chakraborty [one of the judges] brought me back as a wild card.” He became famous for his slow-motion moves.
Going MIA
From there, Juyal worked his way up, choreographing hopefuls for Zee TV’s Dance Ke Superkids, hosting competition shows, participating in S7 of Khatron Ke Khiladi, and landing roles in ABCD 2, Nawabzaade (2018), and Street Dancer 3D (2020).
The tricks continued. At one point, while filming Dance India Dance Season 4 in 2013, Juyal met a fan who’d turned up from Sikkim to watch the shoot. He decided, on a whim, to join the fan on a motorcycle trip to Bhutan, and left unannounced, overnight. His manager and team frantically tried calling him, fearing he’d been “kidnapped or something”. He returned to an almighty scolding. “I was still just a kid then. I thought I could get away with anything.”
In 2018, spurred by a dare, Juyal shaved off his hair right in the middle of hosting S4 of Dance Plus. The producers pulled him up for his ill-timed move – the show’s sponsor was a shampoo brand. They had to tweak the promo script to mention how the product was good for the scalp too.
But for the most part, Juyal was on set every week and got paid to have a good time. It’s the thing that would make most filmi hopefuls excited. But it was exactly the thing that made him restless. “I had become known as this goofy, fun-loving guy who could dance, whom viewers saw every day on TV,” he says. “I knew I had to cultivate exclusivity, or things would never change. I wanted people to come and see me on the big screen.”
And so, another leap. He gave up his TV gigs to try out for films. Between 2018 and 2023, all he did, he says, is “audition like crazy and work out”. No parties, no stable job, no spotlight. He’d often wonder if he’d catch a break.
Stumbles and strides
He did. In Kill (2023) he landed a role as the ruthless dacoit Fani, holding train passengers hostage. In Yudhra (2024), he was the menacing yet wickedly cool Shafiq. “Suddenly I was playing the villain.” The risk paid off, again. Fans left comments such as “I watched this movie for you” and “First time we’re supporting the villain instead of the hero”.
There’s buzz that his upcoming role in The Paradise has an evil side too. But he doesn’t mind being typecast for the moment. “Even Shah Rukh Khan played negative roles in Darr and Baazigar before he got the tag of a loverboy. This is one of my phases.”
It’s because Juyal leaps with such abandon that he doesn’t mind when he falls. In 2020, he injured his knee playing football. The timing couldn’t have been worse – he was shooting for Kill and Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan (2023) back-to-back. Doctors advised six months’ bed rest. “But I this was the most important moment of my career,” he says. So, he summoned his “pahadi DNA” and worked through the weak spells and even a bout of dengue.
Earlier this year, he injured the same knee shooting King. He jokes that being in your 30s means getting acquainted with parts of your body you didn’t know existed: “There are two screws in my jaw, my knee has been operated on, my C4, C5, and C6 discs are herniated and need constant physiotherapy...” It hasn’t occurred to him yet that one’s 30s can also herald a cautionary phase.
Risk assessment
Movie-making is far less forgiving of those who skip shoots and shave their heads. They don’t take kindly to expensive shoots cut short by pranks. So Juyal is channelling his trickster energy into being a bankable actor, with a little help from that old favourite Jab We Met. “Main apni favourite hu (I’m my own favourite),” he says, quoting Geet in the movie. “But really, I’m inspired by Shah Rukh Khan. He carved a niche for himself in an industry that was so closed-off, and still sets the benchmark for greatness. I also admire Irrfan Khan’s work. There will be no one like him. His acting was almost spiritual.”
There are still rules to bend, envelopes to push. But it’s not life advice Juyal would give others. “Everyone has a different risk appetite,” he says. “There’s so much pressure on young people to become someone else, that I don’t want anyone to think they’re worthless if they don’t live up to my definition of success. If 25 people close their eyes and imagine a road, each of them will look completely different. Just take your path.”
From HT Brunch, July 05, 2025
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