RAJEEV IS WANTED BACK BY EKTA ; FANS TOO

He may be known today as the newest hunk on the block, but Rajeev Khandelwal did not come to Mumbai with dreams of making it big as an actor.

Unknown to many, Rajeev is in reality a documentary filmmaker who has made several docudramas on the Indian Army, the life of the aged, and women's labour in the country.

Today, however, it is playing Sujal in Star Plus' new late night opus Kahiin To Hoga that is keeping him busy. Not surprisingly, Rajeev has also spawned a growing female fan following, thanks to his ambitious, egoistic, hotshot dude act in KTH.

Receiving a constant stream of gushing calls has become de rigour, and he acknowledges, albeit in a slight vain vein, that the female adulation is a part of his life now.

Vickey Lalwani caught up with the 'happening' star of tellyland to find out what makes him tick.


Was yours a planned foray into television acting?
No way, I am a B Sc (Chemistry) from St Xavier's, Ahmedabad. Brought up in an army background, I started my career in television as a production assistant. Soon, I began writing and directing documentary films. Till date, I have written about 30 documentaries on various subjects.


Really! Tell us something about the documentaries.
Documentaries that I penned and directed were on issues like old age, women's labour and the Indian Army, among many others. I have a special fascination for the Indian Army. After the Kargil war, I was keen on making something that would showcase the army and hence made one documentary on the subject. Most of the films I made were aired on Doordarshan and were of 30 minutes duration. I did not produce all of them, though.


So, how did the transition from production to acting happen?
Well, I had shot a pilot for a show based on an army backdrop. It didn't find approval and I ended up wasting lots of time and money.

Now that I look back, I think I shouldn't have done it at all. Not only was I vague about the tricks of the trade, I was positively clueless about the content that the mainstream channels would be interested in.

How did you bounce back?
While I was trying to sell that project in Mumbai, I managed to sell myself (laughs). I was selected to model for a few commercials- LML bikes, Gilbey's Green Label Whiskey, Kodak Express and Videocon refrigerators.

Thanks to those opportunities, I recovered most of my lost money within no time. At this point, friends advised me to try my hand at acting. I went in for some auditions at Balaji Telefilms. Luckily, I was selected. I badly needed the money to recover the losses that I had incurred in the making of the pilot. My ad assignments were quite a boon, but they still had not wiped away the entire deficit.


Usually Balaji actors manage to become semi celebrities within no time, how did you manage to keep a low profile?
Guess it all depends on the popularity of the serial. If I had made my first appearance in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, I would have registered with the audiences faster. My cameo was in Sony's Kya Haadsa Kya Haqeeqat. Today, this show is doing well - but I shot for the initial thriller episodes, the inaugural series. It was a great experience. I shared the frame with some great artistes like Rohini Hattangadi and Smriti Malhotra. My first shot was with Smriti. Mind you, I didn't goof up (laughs).


So that's how you started. Then?
Offers started trickling in, but I already signed Kahiin To Hoga. Since it was a daily, that required a major chunk of my time, I didn't want to take up more projects. I didn't want to focus on too many things during the initial stages of my career. Besides, I knew that I was playing a character which would make an impact. Unfortunately, Kahiin... did not flag off as per schedule. That was a trying period.

I was in a dilemma, unsure of what to do next. A catch-22 situation, to be precise. And, people who remembered that I had appeared in KHKH began asking embarrassing questions like 'Kyon Bhaiya, Chale Nahin Kya? (Oh, so you didn't click?)'


Didn't you take a raincheck beforehand? Were and are you bound by a contract with Balaji Telefilms?
No. I am free to take up other projects as and when I please.

I prefer sports to gym
I am a fitness buff but I would clearly mention that I am not a gym freak. I prefer to sweat the calories out by playing a sport rather than in a gym. I love playing, be it badminton, squash or swimming. In fact, it would not be wrong if you called me a sports buff. I think sports is the best form of cardiovascular exercise which keeps you fit and in shape. Of course, I do hit the gym twice a week where I do some weight training in order to have a well-toned body.

Fresh food turns me on
I am very conscious of the food that I eat and I always prefer to have a balanced diet. This is something, which I've been taking care of since my college days. I am very fond of eating salads, sprouts and fresh fruits because of their nutritional value. In fact fresh food turns me on. Also, I prefer to have the salad chopped in my presence so that I know that it is fresh. I believe that food loses its nutritional value when it gets stale.
So when my dabbawala gets my dabba at 2 in the afternoon, he cooks the food only after 12 and not before that!

I eat wholesome meals
Maintaining / losing your weight is 70% diet and 30% exercise. Hence I am very careful about my diet and specially take care that the food I eat is fresh.
Basically, I have a King's breakfast, a princely lunch and a pauper's dinner. In the morning I eat almonds which are soaked overnight. Whatever I eat I see that I get the maximum nutrition from my meals.

RAJEEV KHANDELWAL DIET WISE
Breakfast
My breakfast is generally heavy comprising brown bread (or poha or a bowl of sprouts with lots of peas and mushrooms in it), a bowl of muesli / cornflakes, an egg white, fresh fruits and a vitamin supplement.

Lunch
Lunch is again a heavy affair with chappatis, which are made from a mixture of jowar, bajra, oatmeal, and wheatgerm, which are rich in fibre. My chappatis are so nutritious that even if I eat chappatis with pickle for lunch it would be a good wholesome lunch for me.
I am a vegetarian, so dal, vegetable and a salad are a must.

Dinner
Dinner is light and consists of two rotis and a bowl of steamed or half boiled vegetables. I avoid rice. I don't eat in between meals or if I really want to, then I have a glass of fresh juice or coconut water,

HE CALLS himself the black sheep of the family. Now riding high on the success of his role as Sujal in the tele-soap "Kahiin To Hoga" on Star Plus, he says, when he first told his father, an Army officer, that he wanted to be an actor, his father could not believe his words. Striving for years together, first in Delhi and then in Mumbai, Jaipur-born Rajeev Khandelwal himself could not believe it when he finally tasted success through this Balaji Telefilm production after many a slip.

"I struggled in Delhi to get noticed. I ended up doing a few plays. Nothing more. Finally, I had to migrate to Mumbai. There too, running from pillar to post, I almost thought I had lost it till one day I went for a screen test to the Balaji studios for the serial. I could not believe that I bagged the lead role of Sujal," says this 27-year-old chemistry graduate. Calling Sujal's character as "human", Rajeev calls it the usual love triangle, but "very passionate and intense."

In his effort to get noticed, he says, he started doing advertisements. Subsequently, though, he tried his hand at production, which proved to be his financial undoing. He even lost his car in the process. "When I became tired of waiting for a role to come my way, I started making documentary films for Doordarshan. But what turned out to be a financial disaster was a pilot project I shot for Star Plus. It got rejected, and I lost all the money," he recalls.

After making his debut in a small role in the first story of the series "Kya Hadsa Kya Haqeekat" on Sony TV, Rajeev's real success landed up in the form of Sujal. "Now people recognise me on the street. My parents are pointed out in a crowd as Sujal's parents. They have finally come to terms that I shall never be an armyman like my brother," he says.

In New Delhi recently to inaugurate a shopping mall in Pashim Vihar, Rajeev says people were pushing and jostling to shake hands with him. "I perhaps enjoy it more than others because I know I have worked hard for it," he says.

Time Bomb has evoked mixed responses…
I think all of us were prepared for this kind of a mixed response form the audience. In fact, I am surprised there aren't more people who seem baffled by the narrative techniques or who are critical of it.

The whole idea was to do something unconventional because that is the way one needs to evolve in the creative medium. We need to reinvent ourselves constantly.

What has been your experience with Ketan Mehta as a director?
I was completely in awe of him. And the only aim in my mind was to have this director look at me in approval. I mean he is the man who directed someone like Aamir Khan.

I was scared and nervous and overwhelmed by the thought that he found me suitable for this character. And even now, I can only say that he is not unhappy with me.

A lot of obvious comparisons are drawn between you and Akashdeep. How have you reacted to this competition?
I don't believe there is any competition. We are not Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra. I am not that great though Akashdeep is big in his own way. In fact, I think that he must outshine everyone else in the serial because of the pivotal role that he plays. If the ideology of that character is not forthcoming, then the serial eventually will fail to work. Nothing mediocre will work with Time Bomb.

What is Rajeev Khandelwal doing when he is not acting?
Rajeev is a very simple man. I still think like a kid and have boyish desires. The only passion that I have is for my game of squash which I struggle to play even between two schedules.

Besides that, I love travelling and particularly enjoy going on my bike to the exotic mountains of Ladakh.

What are you looking forward to in life?
Professionally, I am not looking beyond these three months. At an individual level, I want to turn five years younger in the next five years; before I actually grow mature and start doing al the politically right things.

What have been the greatest influences in your life?
Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is one book that I totally identify with. I truly believe that if you have dreams, you must be focused on turning them into reality. And also the fact that Coelho propounds about the whole universe conspiring to make your destiny come true.

Another influence is Ayn Rand's The Fountain Head. I have read it several times over and have Howard Roark's quotes written in my personal diary.

RAJEEV KHANDELWAL SAYS:
"I've opted out from Kahiin To Hoga which gives his fans very bad image on balaji telefilms"

Actor Rajeev Khandelwal finally quits Kahiin To Hoga

Is he in or out? Did he quit the serial or was he kicked out? Questions are rife but answers are lacking. Rajeev Khandelwal, however, remains unfazed and calm in the eye of the storm. "Kicked out? I'm shocked at hearing this. I opted out of Kahiin To Hoga," he says adding, "I was told to simply follow whatever stuff I'm given and ask no questions. So I felt it was best to part ways. I believe I have no right to enjoy the love and affection of viewers if I can't perform with conviction. As an actor I have to be convinced about what I'm doing."
Rajeev, who plays Sujal in the serial, had threatened to leave the show some months ago. However after much discussion with the producers (Balaji Telefilms), he was back. "Some people termed it a publicity stunt on my part. I was serious about quitting even then because I felt the storyline wasn't going anywhere. But at that time somebody senior from Balaji Telefilms had assured me that things would improve."

He defends allegations that he interferes too much in the creative process: "To perform a scene, I need to understand why the character is doing what he's doing. I'm not an actor who just comes, recites his dialogues and goes."

He's aware that not being in a show anymore will alter his life in a big way. "I'm entering a dangerous territory. Very soon I will not be Sujal. But I can't do things that I don't believe in. I haven't left the show for money or for films. I had told Shobha aunty (Ekta Kapoor's mother) that I would be on the show for the next ten years if you keep my interests alive. Pay me half but give me quality was my point," he ends

RAJEEV KHANDELWAL SAYS:
"It's okay if people still call me Sujal"

Rajeev Khandelwal may have left Kahiin To Hoga, but like the adage suggests, the show goes on. As does Khandelwal's own life. "Life is normal; nothing is particularly different," claims the actor who hit the big time playing Sujal on the Star Plus show. At the moment, he is looking forward to the premier of his second serial, a political and psychological thriller by Ketan Mehta called Time Bomb 9/11. It is a fictitious 24- hour account set around the events of that fateful day. Even though he is excited about his forthcoming serial; Khandelwal is not perturbed at being identified with the character – Sujal. "People still identify me with him but that can't be helped. After all, he was loved for two years; if people still call me Sujal, it is but natural," he suggests. Not a couch potato, Khandelwal claims he hasn't been watching the show's progress, or that of his replacement, Gurpreet Singh. "I haven't been watching Kahiin To Hoga but I am sure Gurpreet is doing a good job. I know him, and I'm sure he will take Sujal to even greater heights," he comments good naturedly. Despite his souring relationship with soap queen Ekta Kapoor, he hopes the show goes from strength to strength. In Time Bomb 9/11, Khandelwal plays Varun Awasthi, an intelligence officer who suspects an assassination attempt to be made on the prime minister, only to later realise that there is a larger, global design to create terror, at work. "I'm from an army background, so I didn't have to go out of the way to understand the character," he says. "Besides, with a director like Ketan Mehta I got a very good briefing and a lot of help," he adds. Having played the protagonist in both his television ventures so far, he isn't averse to stepping out of the spotlight. "I am open to experimentation, as long as the people I am working with have faith in me," he avers, "but there is nothing I have signed at present." He should