Supporting characters, lead roles to directing son Hrithik, Rakesh Roshan's journey to success

In Pic: Rakesh Roshan

Rakesh Roshan can be rightly classified as a risk taker. Over the years, the actor-filmmaker never failed to impress his audience with his unconventional, brave and experimental cinema. Be it in his younger days when he was an actor or exploring uncharted territories as a director and producer, he has done it all confidently. Rakesh, who will be celebrating his 75th birthday, tried his hand at various genres and put his incredible vision and skills to display.

The beginning of Rakesh Roshan's career

Rakesh started his career as an actor after the death of his father, Roshan. He was first signed for Man Mandir starring Sanjeev Kumar and Waheeda Rehman. However, his major break came with Ghar Ghar Ki Kahaani in 1970. He played the supporting role. While Rakesh did quite a few supporting characters in his career, the actor's solo hero successful films included Khubsoorat with Rekha, Aankhon Aankhon Mein with Rakhee, Nafrat with Yogita Bali, Shubh Kaamna with Rati Agnihotri and several others.

The actor also starred in multistarrers like Devata, Shriman Shrimati, Haathkadi, Jaag Utha Insan and Ek Aur Sikander. They were successful at the box office. Bahurani reunited him with Rekha and it was his last film as an actor.

The journey of becoming a producer

Rakesh turned producer by launching his home banner, Filmkraft, in 1980. After initial hiccups, the production house delivered successful films like Kaamchor and Shubh Kaamna. The veteran took yet another plunge and became a director with Khudgarz in 1987. As a director, he was known for massy dramas like Khoon Bhari Maang (1988), Kishen Kanhaiya (1990), Karan Arjun (1995), and Koyla (1997).

He shifted his focus on direction from 1990 to 1999 and launched his son Hrithik Roshan with Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai in 2000. He wrote, directed and produced the cult classic. Rakesh enjoyed a fantastic career as a director. After the success of Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, he directed Hrithik in the 2003 superhero film Koi... Mil Gaya, its sequel Krrish (2006) and Krrish 3 (2013). It was a successful franchise. Krrish 4 is also in the making. Rakesh's last production was Kaabil in 2017. It was headlined by his son Hrithik and Yami Gautam.

Rakesh Roshan on Krrish 4

Speaking of Krrish 4, Rakesh said in an interview with India Today, "What is happening is that the audience is still not coming back to the theatres, so that is a big question mark for me. Krrish is going to be a big film. The world has become smaller and kids today are used to seeing Hollywood superhero films that are made on budgets of like $500-600 million. Meanwhile, we have a small budget of ₹200-300 crore in comparison." He further added, "How to give that look to the film? I can, of course, decide to have 4 action sequences instead of 10, but that action has to match up with the quality. The VFX quality needs to be good. We are seeing how the budget and production costs can all be maintained. Big films that are released these days are not doing so well... We are absolutely ready to take the step forward. However, looking at the situation today where films are not doing well and collections are not matching the production costs, we are not immediately looking at it. It is going to happen, but not for a year. Probably after that."