Rahul Bose


Rahul Bose is an Indian actor and athlete who works in Hindi films. Bose is the president of Rugby India.
He has appeared in Bengali films such as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Kalpurush, Anuranan, Antaheen, Laptop and The Japanese Wife. He has also appeared in Hindi films such as Pyaar Ke Side Effects, Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam, Jhankaar Beats, Kucch Luv Jaisaa, Dil Dhadakne Do, Chameli and Shaurya. He also played the antagonist in the Tamil thriller Vishwaroopam and its sequel.
In the early 2000s, Time magazine named him "the superstar of Indian arthouse cinema" while Maxim named him "the Sean Penn of Oriental cinema" for his work in parallel cinema films like English, August and Mr. and Mrs. Iyer.
He is also notable for his social activism: he participated in the relief efforts that followed the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and is also the founder of the anti-discrimination NGO, The Foundation.

Early life and education

Rahul Bose was born to father Rupen and mother Kumud Bose on 27 July 1967. His father is Bengali while his mother is part Punjabi and part Marathi. His maternal grandfather was Lieutenant-General S. P. P. Thorat.
Bose's first acting role was at the age of six when he played the lead character in a school play, Tom, the Piper's Son. As a child he took an interest in sports after his mother introduced him to boxing and rugby union. He also played cricket and was coached by former India cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi.
He is an alumnus of the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai. After being rejected by a number of American universities, Bose attended Sydenham College. While at the college he played on the school's rugby team and competed in the Western India Championships, winning a silver medal in boxing. After his mother's death in 1987, Bose began working as a copywriter at Rediffusion and was later promoted to advertising creative director. Bose left the job to become a full-time actor after the release of his first film, English, August.

Stage and film career

Early career: 1993–2003

Bose started his acting career on the Mumbai stage in Rahul D'Cunha's Topsy Turvey and Are There Tigers in the Congo?. D'Cunha's aunt was the casting director for director Dev Benegal's film English, August and suggested that Bose should play the lead role. After filming a screen test, Benegal decided to cast him as civil servant Agastya Sen. Based on the novel of the same name by Upamanyu Chatterjee, English, August was one of the first Hinglish films and gained Bose international recognition when it became the first Indian film to be purchased by 20th Century Fox and won several awards at international film festivals.
After English, August Bose found work in television; he was offered a role in India's first English-language television serial, A Mouthful of Sky and also co-hosted BBC World's Style! with Laila Rouass. In 1998 he appeared in Kaizad Gustad's Bombay Boys with Naseeruddin Shah and starred in Dev Benegal's second film, Split Wide Open. To prepare for his role as a roving water vendor, Bose lived in Mumbai's slums and observed a drug dealer for two weeks. He later cited this time—along with the 2002 Gujarat riots—as the beginning of the awakening of his social conscience. Although Split Wide Open was controversial in India because of its depictions of sexual abuse, Bose received the Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Actor at the 2000 Singapore International Film Festival for his performance. He also performed abroad in the Leicester Haymarket in England where he starred in the English version of Tim Murari's play, The Square Circle.
In 1997, Bose was cast to play the role of Saleem Sinai in the BBC adaptation of Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children. The project was eventually canceled after the Indian and Sri Lankan governments refused to allow filming.
After seeing Bose in English, August, director Govind Nihalani cast him in the villain role opposite Ajay Devgan in the mainstream film Thakshak. The film was not a financial success, although Bose received positive reviews.
Bose also appeared as "Vikal" a villain in the 1998 Science fiction TV series Captain Vyom
In 2001, Bose made his directorial debut with Everybody Says I'm Fine!. Starring Rehaan Engineer and Koel Purie and featuring Bose in a supporting role, Everybody received mixed reviews from critics, but won Bose the runner-up John Schlesinger Award for best directorial debut at the 2003 Palm Springs International Film Festival. In 2002, Bose starred opposite Konkona Sen Sharma in Aparna Sen's art film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. The film, a critique of communal violence, was a critical success and won several awards at international film festivals as well as three National Film Awards.

Mainstream work: 2003–present

In 2003, Bose entered mainstream Bollywood cinema with Jhankaar Beats in which he played one of two friends, R.D. Burman fans who are obsessed with winning a music competition. Boosted by a successful soundtrack, Jhankaar Beats was a surprise hit in urban multiplexes and went on to win several awards for its music. The same year, Bose appeared in another Bollywood film, Mumbai Matinee which saw a UK release. He starred in Chameli opposite Kareena Kapoor, playing a wealthy chain-smoking Mumbai banker who is stranded in the monsoon rains with a prostitute. The film was not a box office success, but won several Filmfare and IIFA awards.
He was the screenwriter of Hero Bhakti Hi Shakti Hai of Hungama TV in 2005.
Bose's second film pairing with Konkona Sen Sharma, 15 Park Avenue released in January 2006. Directed by Aparna Sen and filmed in English, 15 Park Avenue won the 2006 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English.
File:I am hindi movie.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Bose on the set of National Award-winning Hindi film I Am in 2010
With his next effort, the romantic comedy Pyaar Ke Side Effects, Bose moved once more into mainstream Bollywood cinema. The film follows the rocky relationship of Bose's commitment phobic Mumbai DJ Sid and his Punjabi girlfriend, Trisha played by Mallika Sherawat. Critics noted the freshness of Bose's narration style which involves breaking the fourth wall, a device not commonly used in Indian cinema. The film opened well in multiplexes and was a moderate financial success, eventually ranking among the top-grossing films of 2006. Both Bose and Sherawat received positive reviews for their performances. Sherawat and Bose also starred together in another Bollywood comedy, Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam, which was a commercial and critical failure.
In 2006, Bose starred in the first of a trio of Bengali films, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's Anuranan. Anuranan was well received on the festival circuit and ran successfully for three months in Bengal. It was then dubbed into Hindi and released nationally. Kaalpurush, Bose's second Bengali film, was released commercially in April 2008. Kaalpurush details a father-son relationship and earned writer-director Buddhadeb Dasgupta a National Film Award for Best Feature Film. Bose teamed with Chowdhury again in 2009 for Antaheen which tells the story of online relationships. Like Anuranan, Antaheen was released commercially in West Bengal and was screened at various film festivals, including the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival and the International Film Festival of India. Antaheen went on to win several National Awards including one for Best Film.
Bose continued working in a mix of mainstream and arthouse films in 2008, with the English-language film, Before the Rains. Before the Rains was released in the US and the UK and Bose's performance was praised by many critics, although the film received mixed reviews. Bose also appeared in Shaurya, a military court room drama modelled on the American film A Few Good Men. Bose's performance was well-received; critic Taran Adarsh said his "performance easily ranks as one of his finest works". His appearance in Dil Kabaddi paired him with Konkona Sen Sharma for the third time, this time playing a husband and wife undergoing marital difficulties. The Japanese Wife, with Japanese actress Chigusa Takaku, the third Aparna Sen film in which he has appeared, released on 9 April 2010. He also appeared as a contestant in the reality show Khatron Ke Khiladi where he was eliminated in the 12th round. He hosted the second series of Bloomberg UTV reality show The Pitch. His role as a gay man harassed by the police in I Am was appreciated by critics.
He appeared in Deepa Mehta's version of Midnight's Children where he played the role of General Zulfikar. He also played the villain in the 2013 Tamil film Vishwaroopam. Naren Weiss who was 19 years old at the time, acted opposite Bose in all of his scenes for Vishwaroopam, and credited Bose for working with him during filming. He was scheduled to begin shooting his adaptation of Mohsin Hamid's novel, Moth Smoke in early 2010, but the project was postponed after the film's financial backers pulled out. In 2013, he also played opposite Konkona Sen Sharma again in Suman Mukhopadhyay's Shesher Kabita. In 2017, he directed, produced and acted in the biopic Poorna about the youngest girl to climb Mount Everest.

Filmography

YearFilmRoleLanguageNotes
1988The Perfect MurderPremEnglish
1992Ramayana the Legend of Prince RamaBharata Hindi
1994English, AugustAgastya SenEnglish
1995A Mouthful of SkySarkar, PavanEnglishTV series
1996BomgayThe LeftyEnglish
1998Bombay BoysRicardo FernandesEnglish
1999Split Wide OpenKut PriceEnglish
1999ThakshakSunnyHindi
2001Everybody Says I'm Fine!RageEnglish
2002Mr. and Mrs. IyerJahangir Chaudhary English
2003Jhankaar BeatsRishiHindi & English
2003Ek Din 24 GhanteVirendraHindi
2003Mumbai MatineeDebashish "Debu" ChatterjeeHindi & English
2003ChameliAman KapoorHindi
2004White NoiseKaran DeolEnglish
2005The FallEnglishShort film
2005Scrum in the Mud with Rahul BoseHimselfEnglishTV documentary
2005SilsiilayNeel KashyapHindi
200515 Park AvenueJoydeep "Jojo" RoyEnglish
2005Ctrl+Alt+DelKabirEnglish
2006AnurananRahul ChatterjeeBengali
2006Pyaar Ke Side EffectsSiddharth "Sid" BoseHindi
2006The Other Side of BollywoodHimselfEnglishDocumentary
2007Chain Kulii Ki Main KuliiVarun RoyHindi
2008Before the RainsT. K. NeelanEnglish/ MalayalamBilingual
2008ShauryaMajor Siddhant Chaudhary Hindi
2008Maan Gaye Mughal-e-AzamArjun RastogiHindi
2008Dil KabaddiRishi SharmaHindi
2008TahaanZafarHindi
2008KaalpurushSonHindi
2009AntaheenAbhik ChoudhuryBengali
2010FiredJoy MittalHindi
2010The Japanese WifeSnehamoy ChatterjeeEnglish/ Bengali/ Japanese
2011Kuch Love JaisaRaghav PassportHindiReleased 27 May 2011
2011I AmJay GowdaHindi
2012Midnight's ChildrenZulfikarEnglish
2012LaptopIndroBengali
2013VishwaroopamOmar QureshiTamil/ HindiBilingual
2013Shesher KabitaAmit RayBengali
2014Shondhey Namar AgeyAlokBengali
2015Dil Dhadakne DoManav SanghaHindi
2015Under ConstructionImtiazBengaliBangladeshi film
2016NiruttaraPradeepKannada
2017Poorna: Courage Has No LimitDr. R.S. Praveen KumarHindiAlso director and producer; biopic on Malavath Purna
2018Vishwaroopam IIOmar QureshiTamil/HindiBilingual
2020BulbbulMahendra/IndranilHindiNetflix Original Release
2022Salaam VenkyLawyer Parvez AlamHindi
2023Binodini: Ekti Natir UpakhyanRangababuBengali
2023NeeyatJimmy MistryHindi
2023Iraivan"Smiley Killer" BrahmaTamil
2024BerlinSondhiHindi
2024AmaranCol Amit Singh DabasTamil
2024Bhairathi RanagalParandeKannada
2025Metro... In DinoHindi
2025Madam SenguptaBengali