Rahul Bose: A career is not built with what you say yes to, but with what you say no to | Exclusive

Rahul Bose Pic/IMDb

Rahul Bose, who made waves with his acting prowess in films like ‘Mr. and Mrs. Iyer', ‘Jhankaar Beats', ‘Chameli', ‘Dil Dhadakne Do', and ‘Bulbbul' to name a few, will be seen in Atul Sabharwal's spy thriller ‘Berlin' alongside Aparshakti Khurana and Ishwak Singh. Set in the 90s, the story backtracks 30 years when a deaf-mute young man is accused and arrested by the Bureau for being a spy, and as the mystery unfolds, the line between guilt and innocence blurs.

In an exclusive interaction with mid-day.com, Rahul speaks about his role in the film which will be screened at the Red Lorry Film Festival curated by BookMyShow, lessons picked up along the way as an actor in showbiz, and more.

In ‘Berlin', Rahul, plays an officer at the Intelligence Bureau in India. Sharing deets on his character, he says, "There is something dark and shadowy happening in the Intelligence Bureau and he's pretty much in the center of it and you think that he's going to get to the bottom till you find that the truth is not what it appears to be. I agreed to get on board because it was a wonderful script. Atul knew what he was doing. So it was a no-brainer."

Drawing comparisons to the massy spy films Bollywood has produced and continues to do so, Rahul maintains that ‘Berlin' is different. He says, "It is not so much a spy thriller. It's the playing out of people working in the shadows, the interiority of the film, and what is more left unsaid than said that works for ‘Berlin' to become this claustrophobic psychological mind game, very different from the overt spy thrillers that are propelled by the action and the narrative."

Rahul boasts a diverse filmography that has seen him essay versatile roles over the years. When asked if he found himself being picky in doing so, he shares, "I don't think I've ever gone with the flow as an actor. In the 50-odd films I've done, there might be one that I regret doing, but the rest of them have pretty much been a function of choice. I keep saying a career is not built with what you say yes to, but with what you say no to. I don't know whether it's picky, but I certainly go where my head and heart tell me to."

After being a part of the entertainment industry for more than three decades, Rahul says the biggest lesson he has picked up as an actor is to enjoy what you're doing. "There's no point for me to work with people who are not good human beings, whether it's a director or actors. I have done some films where they haven't been the most exemplary and it hasn't been fun. So I'd much rather work on a project that is less recognised and has less potential to be a massive success but with good people as opposed to with people with weird, conflicted personalities in a film that promises to be great. For me, the process is much more important than the promise of success at the end of it," he avers.

Amid the highs and lows of showbiz, Rahul says that becoming a star is not in your hands. "It's about you being charismatic enough for people to watch you no matter what you do or how well or badly you do it. People come because they're just drawn to your charisma. That's when you become a star and you transcend the material you're given, the co-stars you have, the script in front of you, or the director who's directing you. Whereas being an actor is just making people believe that that person existed, that that person is somebody you could meet walking down the street, that that's a person who lives and breathes outside of the screen. That is, for me, really satisfying when you can take people on a journey and they forget that it's you doing it and they're just absorbed in the character," he concludes.