Undoubtedly he is one of the biggest sensations Malayalam screen has ever produced. After his dream debut through legendary filmmaker Padmarajan’s ‘Koodevide’, Rasheen Rahman aka Rahman went on to reign the south Indian screen for nearly a decade. His innocent face could easily lure female audience into theatres and most of the times Mollywood’s ultimate lover boy was cast opposite Sobhana, Rohini, Lizzy or Revathy.
Rahman is one Malayalam actor who went on to become successful the Tamil and Telugu tinsel worlds with many hits including ‘Nilave Malare’, ‘Nan Pathi Nee Paathi’, ‘Puthu Puthu Arthangal’ (Tamil), and ‘Bharat Bandh’ (Telugu). But his screen image of a lover boy, followed him even after he stepped into the shoes of a mature hero. He was and still is, a lover boy for thousands.
“Even now people approach me with such scripts and I keep telling them that the days have gone, the viewers have changed and I can’t be lover boy again,” Rahman says.
In 1984 alone, he did four films each with Mammootty, who had made a seat of his own in the industry by then, and also with Mohanlal who was in the initial stages of his stardom after playing a couple of notable villains. “I never had to face any issues and was always supported by the co-actors whether it is Mammooka or Lal. Though seniors, they treated me well and there were no ego clashes off screen or on screen. Unlike the past era of one-man shows, we had characters the audience could identify with. So those films are talked about even now.”
The actor remembers he was less acting and more behaving on screen those days. “I did not involve in the method acting. All the films I acted had a separate love track for me which made me the darling lover boy of the film-goers,” he recollects the salad days when he played an innocent lover with a couple of songs and dance numbers as in films like ‘Kanamarayath’ and ‘Poomughappadiyil Ninneyum Kaath’.
He says that the heroines of that time used to shy away from intimate scenes. “But I always maintained a casual and friendly rapport with most of them. Rohini used to give suggestions to improve our acting. I used to get a lot of fan mails requesting me to marry Shobhana since our screen chemistry was good,” he says.
The actor says that he believes he can still play lover roles. “I can play roles that suits my age,” says the actor with his salt and pepper look from the sets of ‘Bachelors Party’.