Raghav Juyal on Kill, Gyaarah Gyaarah success, Yudhra failure, quitting TV

Actor Raghav Juyal was on a roll with the success of Kill and Gyaarah Gyaarah to his name this year, but that momentum faced a bump as his recent release Yudhra faltered at the box office.

Ask him if it made him feel disheartened and he says, “Nahi pasand aayi hogi logon ko to nahi gaye honge dekhne wo. Ab koi zabardasti to nahi hai. If Yudhra would have come first, I might have been disappointed but Kill and Gyaarah Gyaarah came first and people recognised the actor in me. Even in Yudhra, people have praised the actor in me.”

Yudhra was announced before COVID and released almost five years later. Ask if the huge gap acted against the film and he says, “I don’t think so. Genuinely, public ko film nahi pasand aayi hogi, so wo gaye nahi honge theatres. It’s as simple. Kill is a film made in just three train compartments built in Filmistan Studio. It came after Prabhas, Kamal Haasan and Deepika Padukone’s Kalki 2898 AD and before Akshay Kumar sir’s Sarfira. All of it came and went, but Kill still earned worldwide and became a rage and a cult classic.”

The 33-year-old reveals that in the last seven years, he has done many films, but none have seen the light of the day still. “Even Yudhra was shot during lockdown, but nothing released. So, that time was stressful, just waiting for your films to get released for four-five years and for people to notice that you can act. Some of my art films are still in the box, including one with Ranvir Shorey, a film with Namit Das and one with Sanjay Mishra,” he says.

However, the actor asserts that Kill “changed my life completely”. Talking about delving into serious and villainous roles, and the year he has had till now, Raghav says, “To break an image, you need to do a path-breaking character. Thus, it was a conscious decision to not do comedy. TV had also become monotonous for me. I wasn’t getting to try different things and the risk had reduced. It feels good to see that after 14 years people have realised that I am a good actor. It’s difficult to be patient for this long. When I go anywhere now, people say ‘what an actor’, and that gives me satisfaction.”

Raghav connects well with his audience and the reason behind it according to him is his roots: “People tell me ki unhe lagta hai ki apna baccha hai jo aage bad raha hai. Such comments make me happier. Even after so many years, I keep going back to my roots and that’s what makes people feel too that I am their own. I don’t put up videos of fancy parties or promote luxurious brands, and that’s why perhaps people relate to me.”