Rahul Roy: It wasn’t easy to say yes to the role

As Agra heads to Cannes, Aashiqui star Rahul Roy says director Behl had a hard time convincing him to play a womanizer

It’s difficult to imagine Rahul Roy playing a womaniser. Blame it perhaps on the audience’s memory of him essaying the role of a lover boy, belting out melancholic melodies in Aashiqui (1990). The actor too was apprehensive when director Kanu Behl offered him the tricky role in Agra. “It wasn’t easy to say yes. I didn’t know how to do this role. All the credit goes to Kanu and his team, who got this performance out of me,” says Roy, who was last seen in a song in Cabaret (2019).

In 2020, the actor suffered a brain stroke while filming LAC — Live The Battle, in Kargil. A year later, he was emotionally and physically ready to pursue acting again. To Roy, Agra is important not only because it brought him back on a film set, but also for liberating him as an actor after a three-decade-plus career. “I’ve always played a hero in my movies. This is the first time I played a character. It changed my perspective. Being a hero is not important, being convincing as a character is.” 

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Agra, which explores sexual dynamics within a family, will be screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival. In the movie, Roy plays Daddy, a failed businessman and womaniser, who is desperate to build a bigger house for his family. “Kanu has made a fantastic film. I feel honoured that it will be showcased at Cannes,” he says.

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