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A Man for all Reasons

Photographs by Akash Mehta

Published: Volume 13, Issue 1, January - February, 2005

I am no armchair celebrity campaigner. I believe that you have to walk the talk. I genuinely care. If someone thinks I push this image of a sensitive man, then it's a tragedy.

He is that rare thing - a protagonist looking beyond himself, reaching to the world outside, rather than self-absorbedly turning within. A man who relishes playing several roles, Rahul Bose wears many caps with easy sensitivity and a strong social conscience. As he readies to wow viewers with a brand new film, White Noise, Deepali Nandwani spends a few unguarded moments with the actor with a serious soul.

It's refreshing to meet Rahul Bose over coffee in a sea-facing apartment in Mumbai, before he leaves for Kolkata to shoot for director, Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Bengali film, Kalpurush.

Bose is simultaneously actor, director, writer, rugby player and, now, crusader. Most actors are just that, slotted actors, doing the rounds of film parties or nightclubs. Some may harbour interests beyond cinema, but more along the lines of giving a couple of hours to a social cause or at best attending a charity function. Like most actors, though, Bose is ubiquitous. You may spot him at a party, a glamorous fashion event or a star-studded movie premiere. But unlike other actors, these are not the only places where he will be seen.

You could also catch him at the World Peace Congress, holding forth on gender issues. Hear him at Oxford University, delivering a lecture on communal harmony. Or watch him march against the tyranny of the Gujarat government. You will also see him playing rugby, running the marathon, reading passages from a new book to a keen audience….

The man obviously thrives on living out several roles.

An actor's is only one of them. His next movie, writer-director, Vinita Nanda's White Noise, releases currently. Set in a television and film production house, it juxtaposes the lives of characters acting in a TV serial with the people behind its

Making. At the centre of the film is the very strong-headed, progressive scriptwriter, Gauri (Koel Purie) - young, attractive, alcoholic - a woman in love with a married man. In Bose's Karan Deol, she finds the support she needs.

He calls White Noise "the last in my trilogy of silent and strong roles, a perfect foil for the aggressive, assertive woman".

"Unlike White Noise or his last two films, Dasgupta's Kalpurush is more the journey of self-discovery of the middle-class Sumanta. "His marriage has failed, he has an affair going and nothing to commend him, not even his work. Yet, he is a lovely character, a man infused with a sense of romanticism. Constantly delighted, he has surreal conversations with his dead father, played by Mithun Chakraborty. Through these chats, he and his father discover themselves and each other."

If there is one challenging role Bose singles out among his performances, it is that of a cross dresser who entertains for a living, in Tim Murari's play, The Square Circle. "I thought I knew a lot about women, being this '90s self-realised man. This play was like discovering a whole new side of things. Every morning, when I put on the make-up, I wondered what kind of trauma I was putting myself through! And what kind of trauma women put themselves through under social pressure forcing them to look and behave in a certain way."

For the rest of the article, pick up VERVE’s January-February, 2005 issue

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