Actor Rahul Bose, who recently completed 25 years in the Hindi film industry, reflects on his career that began with Thakshak in 1999. In a freewheeling chat with us, Rahul Bose, who now has a broad range of roles under his belt, discusses the complexities of an actor’s career, particularly the challenge of avoiding being pigeonholed into a specific type of role.

At 57, Rahul, who was last seen in the web show Berlin, draws from his own experiences and observes that successful actors are those who constantly experiment with their craft. He says, “All good actors constantly experiment [in their career], and plan their careers well.” However, he notes it is a common pitfall for actors to play similar roles: “I have seen enough actors do the same kind of roles. First, it’s great, then nice, and eventually intolerable.”

Ask Rahul how difficult it is to convince filmmakers that actors who have excelled in one genre can successfully transition to others, and he says, “The appetite has to change in both”. “When you have someone do something really well, a few filmmakers start looking at them and thinking, ‘I know he/she is very talented, how can we do something fresh with them? Let’s make them a murderer, let’s change the genre’,” he adds.

Rahul also speaks about the importance of rejecting repetitive roles for long-term success. “A career is not decided by what you say yes to, but rather what you say no to. To be able to say no, you have to think, ‘Will I regret it later?’ Sometimes, the money is good, so to constantly refrain from saying no can also be a really difficult thing.”