'I am an actor who also writes'

Ninety-nine per cent chances that the minute you see his face, you will acknowledge that he is a brilliant actor and then try to recall his name. Having seen him in TV series 24 recently and loved his ‘Osama-voice’ in Tere Bin Laden, it is time to meet Rahul Singh.

Hailing from Udaipur, Singh has been in the Hindi film industry for more than a decade. “Sometimes you don’t choose the field you want to be in, the field chooses you,” says the actor who was focused right from his childhood. One can analyse this from his education at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the British Film Institute.

“In college, I used to be never in the classroom. I used to participate in either an inter-college competition or be part of two-three professional theatre groups,” says Singh who has acted and directed in nearly 50 plays during his college days. “They were based on social issues. That is what gave me the kick to do them.”

Soon he made his foray into the ‘real world of acting’ and Zubeidaa came his way. “It was a big thing to get my first film with Shyam Benegal. He is the man who has launched some of the biggest stars/actors we have in the industry today – from Shabana Azmi to Om Puri,” says Singh who did not feel that his role was rather miniscule.

“An actor is never happy. We always want more,” he says diplomatically as the mention of not being from the industry creases his forehead. “I don’t call it a struggle, it is life,” he says with a smile.

The conversation brightens up prompting Metrolife to ask him about his experience as part of Tere Bin...

Singh laughs and shares an incident. “To be able to get the right intonation for the voice of Osama bin Laden, I had to download his videos online. While doing so at an internet cafe, I was being watched by an uncle who was almost on the verge of handing me to the police on suspicion of me being a terrorist. He would have done so if the young guys at the cafe not introduced me as a reputed actor,” says the actor who will soon be seen in Tere bin Laden part two and is also set to play the lead in Dr Chandra Prakash Dwivedi’s upcoming film Zed Plus.

Refusing to divulge any details, he also mentions that “I am an actor who also writes”.
He seems to have inherited his passion for writing from his mother Prabha Thakur, a renowned Hindi poetess, but admits that he wants to be known as an actor first because,

“I can develop my own story. But if you ask me to develop another person’s story, I won’t be able to do that. At present seven-eight scripts are lying ready in my closet in which directors like Tigmanshu Dhulia, Sameer Sharma and others have shown interest but my dream stays the same. Only change is, it has matured now.”