Rahul Dev has played some terrifying villains in Bollywood and South Indian films and recently surprised everyone by essaying a positive role in the web series The Empire. His portrayal of Wazir Khan was one of the show’s highlights. He played a cop named Rajesh Ahlawat in an OTT film Raat Baaki Hai.
“My late father Hari Dev was a cop and won the gallantry award twice. I have seen him at work. But he hardly came home. I knew that I didn’t want to be a cop. Both my brother (Mukul Dev) and I are well educated, but we didn’t want to be an IPS or an IAS. Our father didn’t tell us to be cops either. Hence I am not telling that to my son (Siddhant) either. He will chart his own path,” says Rahul who has also played cop roles in offbeat films like Kalpana Lajmi’s Kyon? and Kushan Nandy’s 88 Antop Hill.
The man who made films on a larger than life canvas – filmmaker Mukul Anand discovered Rahul cast him in Dus with Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan and Vinod Khanna. But Mukul expired and the film got shelved. The Delhi-based model went on to debut in the Sunny Deol-starrer Champion (2000).
“Mukul made me undergo a few acting courses to get my acting right. I worked with the best. Paintal saab also taught me a few tactics. I remember one of his mimes involving a butterfly, which blew me away,” recollects Rahul.
Branded as a ‘villain’ as was the norm in the Hindi film industry back then. Rahul went off to the South and played a negative role in the Mahesh Babu film Takkari Donga. “Bipasha Basu and Lisa Ray were the heroines, and they could not speak much Hindi as well then, and Mahesh and I had a lot of fun,” chuckles Rahul.
He is very happy to get consistent work in the last two years. “I have been treated well by life and have worked a lot. I had a few releases, and I will have half a dozen more. But these days, one has to sign non-disclosure agreements; hence I am not at liberty to disclose the projects – but I have one with Vikram Bhatt,” Rahul reveals.
He was back to playing the villain in Torbaaz before turning dean in Love, Scandal & Doctors and a retired soldier in Who’s Your Daddy?. Cinema is changing, and Rahul is happy with the change. “When I look back at old films, some of them seem funny. That is how cinema is changing today, and we need to get cracking on some great stories,” he concludes.
