MUMBAI: Rahul Dev is easily one of the most versatile and talented actors that we have in the Indian entertainment industry. His charm and on-screen versatility speaks for itself... no wonder, the love and appreciation of the audience has been his biggest validation over the years as a performing artiste. He's one of the very few actors who's made a mark in not just Hindi but in film projects of all languages. He recently impressed everyone with his character of 'Nader Shah' in the Punjabi blockbuster 'Mastaney' set in the period 1738, and currently, he's receiving a lot of praise for the same. Not just that, prior to that, we saw in projects like Gaslight, Adhura and Hunter, he slayed with perfection. Regarding this golden phase, Rahul Dev says,
"God has been kind and I am blessed to have had good projects coming my way. By good projects, I don't just a good role. For me it means diverse,,unique roles with depth, which genuinely offer me the opportunity to challenge my self as an actor... It gives me a scope to work on different dialects in speech be it the Haryanvi Cop from the contemporary thriller 'Hunter', speaking in Punjabi Urdu for Emperor 'Nader Shah' in a period film set in 1738, a vulnerable yet brave father in the 1920 sequel, with a polished SP in Gaslight or a no nonsense CBI officer Bedi in Adhura... these roles have helped extract the best out of me as an actor.
As an actor, one hopes to perform versatile parts that draws out different sides of your personality... I feel lucky that I to be blessed with such opportunities across multiple languages. 'Mastaney' has been a brilliant experience for me and I am so happy to be a part of a magnum opus like this. The biggest Punjabi film ever, which has released in over 35 countries with theatres being added on a daily basis due to the strong word of mouth... it released in over 100 theatres in UP, a record of sorts, in addition to being screened in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi & Mumbai. The scale is humongous and it's a record for any Punjabi film till date I am told.
Earlier, on March 22nd, the thriller larger than life series 'Hunter' had released on Amazon MiniTV and i played a grey character, a strong headed Haryanvi Cop called Huda, a role I thoroughly enjoyed because of the use of the Haryanvi dialect. In fact there were a lot of memes of the entertaining dialogues, part improvised by me which was doubly satisfying.
Also had the series from Emmay Entertainment 'Adhura' on Amazon Prime Video in which I played a honest & accomplished CBI officer Bedi.
Then there was the role of an IPS uniformed cop Ashok Tanwar in the Akshai Puri & Tips Entertainment film 'Gaslight' which released on Disney Plus Hotstar and was a success. The vulnerable father who bravely fights for his daughter's safety in Vikram Bhatt's '1920: Horrors of the Heart' was an entirely different experience.
Must add that it's been a very creative phase professionally and I am glad that all of these projects have been greeted with success.
More than anything else, the fact that all my roles were so varied & diversely different from each other, helped get the love and appreciation from my audience. Grateful indeed."
Rahul Dev's character of Nader Shah fetched him a tremendous amount of love and affection and even his co-star Tarsem Jassar was all praises for him. Recently, during an interview with TV9 Punjab-Himachal Pradesh-J&K, he said,
“Rahul Dev sir is a great actor. For the character of Nader Shah, we had thought about him only and our only hope was that we get his dates. I remember when our director had the first conversation with him on this, he asked whether the scale is actually planned for a regional Punjabi cinema or not. He was perhaps a little in disbelief regarding the scale of the project. Eventually, when he came on set, he was surprised. Eventually, it all happened and we are glad that we have a great actor like Rahul Dev for this film.”
Kudos to Rahul Dev for slaying in multiple roles across different platforms and languages and being an inspiration for others with the way he is. We congratulate him on this brilliant phase. Stay tuned for more updates.
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