Raghubir Yadav has every reason to relax. He’s had two back-to-back successes in Panchayat, and now Ghoomketu, and is making sure he has enough time to reboot for the next. The phone has been ringing off the hook and scripts have been pouring in. Yadav has been absorbed into each one’s pursuit. It’s his careful project selection that has held him in good stead. “I cannot afford to be impatient or impulsive with my decisions. The road to this point has been long, and it’s going to get hectic from here. I must make the most of what I have today,” says Yadav.
He started his career with films like Massey Saheb and Salaam Bombay in 1985. Film-making was so different back then. “It was fuss-free and simple. Today, it’s advanced and all technology driven,” he says. Films going digital have changed the dynamics of entertainment. “It has given a chance to many more stories to be told, and for new talent to be discovered. I am glad to have experienced the medium through my debut project, Panchayat,” he says.
Then came along Ghoomketu where he played Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s tyrannical father who wants his son to take on his business. But the son relents as he wants to be a writer. This leads to conflict.The beauty of it was that the role took Yadav back to his childhood when he faced something similar. How when he told his father he wanted to become an actor he faced opposition. His father wanted him to complete his studies and start working in a factory, just like he did.
Then one day, in a fit of rage, Yadav declared to his father, that he was going to become an actor no matter what. “I ran away from school and joined a theatre caravan that was travelling across India. My father was shocked but realised I was determined,” he says. Yadav travelled with them like gypsies for almost seven years. There was no pay, very little food and sometimes not even a bed to sleep on. But they were a tightly-knit family. “We entertained people selflessly. Nothing can be more rewarding,” says Yadav. Film offers may be rolling into his laps today but he never judges them based on the names associated with it. Staying grounded while aiming high has been his motto.
This is one of the reasons
why working with debutant director Pushpendra Nath, felt right to him. Nawazuddin Siddiqui too is like him. “He’s simple and hardworking. Because of our background in theatre, we don’t have ego clashes,” he says.Up next is a movie tentatively titled Paglet. Then there’s Aadhaar. “I long to produce and direct one day. I have many stories to tell. I will bring them to the world stage someday,” he says.